CHICKADEE. 
147 
familiarly for their lurking prey, and are particularly fond of 
spiders and the eggs of destructive moths, especially those of 
the canker-worm, which they greedily destroy in all its stages 
of existence. It is said that they sometimes attack their own 
species when the individual is sickly, and aim their blows at 
the skull with a view to eat the brain ; but this barbarity I have 
never witnessed. In winter, when satisfied, they will descend 
to the snow-bank beneath and quench their thirst by swallow- 
ing small pieces ; in this way their various and frugal meal is 
always easily supplied ; and hardy, and warmly clad in light 
and very downy feathers, they suffer little inconvenience from 
the inclemency of the seasons. Indeed in the winter, or about 
the close of October, they at times appear so enlivened as 
already to show their amorous attachment, like our domestic 
cock, the male approaching his mate with fluttering and vibra- 
ting wings ; and in the spring season, the males have obstinate 
engagements, darting after each other with great velocity and 
anger. Their roost is in the hollows of decayed trees, where 
they also breed, making a soft nest of moss, hair, and feathers, 
and laying from six to twelve eggs, which are white, with 
specks of brown-red. They begin to lay about the middle or 
close of April ; and though they commonly make use of natural 
or deserted holes of the Woodpecker, yet at times they are 
said to excavate a cavity for themselves with much labor. The 
first brood take wing about the 7th or loth of June, and they 
have sometimes a second towards the end of July. The young, 
as soon as fledged, have all the external marks of the adult, — 
the head is equally black, and they chatter and skip about 
with all the agility and self-possession of their parents, who 
appear nevertheless very solicitous for their safety. From this 
time the whole family continue to associate together through 
the autumn and winter. They seem to move by concert from 
tree to tree, keeping up a continued 'tshe-de-de-de-de, and 'tshe- 
de-de-de-dait, preceded by a shrill whistle, all the while busily 
engaged picking round the buds and branches hanging from 
their extremities and proceeding often in reversed postures, 
head downwards, like so many tumblers, prying into every 
