THE CONDOR. 
Bulletin of the Cooper Ornithological Club. 
A Bi-Monthly Exponent of Californian Ornithology. 
Vol. 3. No. 5. Santa Clara, Cal,, September-October, 1901. $1.00 a Year 
Some Characteristics of the Mountain Chickadee. 
BY C. BARLOW, SANTA CLARA, CAL. 
I T was a cheery chick-a-dee-dee that 
gave me my first introduction to this 
vivacious bird in the Sierra, and 
when I later discovered a nest hidden 
securely in an old pine stub deep in 
the forest, I could not resist the impres- 
sion that here indeed was contentment 
personified. Here, far from the habita- 
tions of man, and beside an abandoned 
trail which had long since ceased to re- 
echo human footsteps had settled a pair 
of Mountain Chickadees gam- 
beli). No matter how fared their neigh- 
bors and with no time to gossip with 
the shy warblers of their domain, these 
little birds seemed unconscious of all 
else save their piney mansion. 
True they were not fastidious and 
had taken up house-keeping in old 
quarters, and their particular stub with 
its deep-creased bark and rottenTourid- 
ation did not differ from a thousand 
other stubs which dotted the forest. 
But this stump, capped by the previous 
winter’s snow, was destined to become 
the arena of intense activity with the 
advent of Spring, 
It has seemed to me that many of the 
characters of every-day life have their 
counterparts in the bird world. Some 
of the feathered tribe show great delib- 
eration in their work, as though spring 
would never wane ; others, such as the 
Wood Pewee and flycatchers find much 
time to watch the doings of their neigh- 
bors, but the chickadee is the ideal of 
industry. I have never seen a Moun- 
tain Chickadee that he was not deeply 
engrossed in his work, his chick-a-dee- 
dee chick-a-dee-dee sounding shrilly the 
warning that no one must delay him. 
This black-and-white Parus occurs 
from the lower ridges of the Sierra up 
to the summit, and deserted indeed are 
the woods that do not re-echo his call. 
Tike most of the resident species using 
protected nests, the Mountain Chicka- 
dee begins nest-building early, being 
but little influenced by the elements. 
Rotten stubs have the preference as 
nesting sites, particularly where the 
core of the tree has rotted away, leav- 
ing a cavity. I doubt if the birds at- 
tempt much excavating, aside from car- 
rying out loose material. Of all the 
nests I have examined a majority were 
in pine or spruce stubs with the en- 
trance at the top. 
My first nest was found on June ii, 
1898, as Mr. L. E. Taylor and I were 
walking along the stage road. I shot a 
bird which was moving about in the 
timber and found it to be a Mountain 
Chickadee. Fearful of results I looked 
about for a possible nest. An old 
spruce stub about three feet high and 
nine inches through stood near the 
road and a two-inch hole in its top led 
down into the darkness. On scraping 
