_Penthestes atricapillus atricapillus. Case 2, Fig. 37_
Crown black, wing-coverts margined with whitish.
L. 5-1/4.
_Range._ Nests from central Missouri and northern
New Jersey north into Canada, south, along the
Alleghanies to North Carolina; winters south to
Maryland.
Washington, rare and irregular W.V., Oct. 19-Apl.
19. Ossining, tolerably common P.R. Cambridge,
common P.R., more numerous in fall and winter. N.
Ohio, common P.R. Glen Ellyn, fairly common P.R.
SE. Minn., common P.R.
While the Chickadee is with us throughout the year, it is during the
winter that he takes first place in our affections. Active, cheerful,
friendly, he is an ever welcome visitor to our lunch-counters, and often
shows complete and winning confidence in us by perching on our hands.
His clearly enunciated _chick-a-dee_, with its variations, we accept as
his characteristic language, but the sentiment expressed in his two- or
three-noted whistle seems to belong to the Pewee rather than the
sprightly Black-cap. It is, in fact, often falsely attributed to that
bird, even when our books tell us that the Pewee is wintering in the
tropics!
The Chickadee nests in holes, usually within ten feet of the ground,
laying 5-9 white, brown-speckled eggs in the first half of May.