Chickadees 
feeding; on 
the ground 
Just before siinset tviro male Bluebirds were filling 
the still air with their tender warbling as I crossed the 
field to our berry pasture. At the same time a Phoebe 
performed its song flight. I saw another do it earlier 
in the day (about noon) at Ball’s Hill, Red-wings were 
scattered all over the river meadows at evening, singing 
from their perches on the willows, maples and button 
bushes, I heard only one Robin in full song —in the oaks 
near the Barrett Spring, Song Sparrows were common and 
generally distributed. I heard two Tree Sparrows singing 
delightfully near West Bedford station this morning. Al¬ 
together it was a great bird day and I had a feast of 
the tender bird music only to be heard at this early 
season. 
In a mixed growth of oaks, maples and pines behind 
Ball's Hill I had two pairs of Chickadees under constant 
observation for about half an hour this forenoon. They 
remained on the ground during the whole of this time, not 
once taking to the trees even when I ^proached them so 
closely that they were forced to flit on ahead of me. 
When not disturbed in this way, they moved about rather 
slowly, over limited areas, by a succession of bouncing 
hope. They seemed to be especially interested in the 
fallen, water-soaked oak and maple leaves; seizing these 
in their bills,they shook and dragged them about, some¬ 
times tearing them into small fragments. Twice I saw a 
bird extract from a leaf and eat a small, elliptical. 
