20 Birds Every Child Should Know 
are only a harmless mimic. He is very inquis- 
itive. Although not a bird may be in sight 
when you first whistle his call, nine chances out 
of ten there will be a faint echo from some far 
distant throat before very long ; and by repeat- 
ing the notes at short intervals you will have, 
probably, not one but several echoes from as 
many different chickadees whose curiosity to 
see you soon gets the better of their appetites 
and brings them flying, by easy stages, to the 
tree above your head. Where there is one 
chickadee there are apt to be more in the neigh- 
bourhood; for these sociable, active, cheerful 
little black-capped fellows in gray like to hunt 
for their living in loose scattered flocks through- 
out the fall and winter. When they come near 
enough, notice the pale rusty wash on the sides 
of their under parts which are more truly dirty 
white than gray. Chickadees are wonderfully 
tame: except the chipping sparrow, perhaps 
the tamest birds that we have. Patient people, 
who know how to whistle up these friendly 
sprites, can sometimes draw them close enough 
to touch, and an elect few, who have the special 
gift of winning a wild bird’s confidence, can in- 
duce the chickadee to alight upon their hands. 
Blessed with a thick coat of fat under his soft, 
fluffy gray feathers, a hardy constitution and a 
sunny disposition, what terrors has the winter 
for him? When the thermometer goes down, 
