Chickweed

“ The pretty little twin flower, or ground vine, as it is sometimes called, has a pair of scales growing about its seed pod, and these scales are covered with sticky hairs.
The soft little mouse-ear chickweed, that grows everywhere in waste places, has several species which are covered all over with fine hairs which have a sticky tip. When the plant withers, it is easily pulled from the ground, and as it remains sticky, even after withering, the whole plant is often carried away by passing animals or people, and its seeds shed in some distant place. ”

“ II. The Marsh Stitchwort (S. palustris) . Smooth, with a fine bloom (glaucous) . Sepals united at base, three-nerved, not so long as the petals. Flowers solitary on long stalks. Marshes and wet places. May to July.
III. The Common Chickweed (S. media) , which we have already figured (plate 54 ante) , is also a member of this genus. ”

“ So, too, the numerous species of campion and catchfly (Silene) , with their [378] singular expanded calices; and those handsome flowers, the white and rosy lychnises, which love to air their charms by the side of running waters. The cottony down upon these plants was wont to be much used for the wicks of lamps.
Then, too, the whole tribe of chickweeds are included in the Caryophyllaceæ. They are spring flowers, with pearly white blossoms, five-petalled, like a five-rayed star, and long slender drooping leaves. Their resemblance to a star has suggested their scientific name, Stellaria ”

“ THE GREAT TYGER MOTH. The Caterpillars are hatch’d from the Egg in August, and feed in their infant State on Nettles, Lettice, &c. till the End of October; when, if the Weather be cold and bad, they find themselves a Residence for the Winter in Holes and private Recesses, where they continue till the March or April following, as the Spring is more or less forward. At their coming out of their Holes they feed on the young Nettles, Chickweed, &c. that grows in dry Ditches and Gardens ”

“ Pedicels spreading; clusters open, many-flowered (2-6 dm. high; flowers white, in summer) Chickweed, Stellaria graminea. 18a. Petals distinctly longer than the sepals — 19. 18b. Petals as long as the sepals, or shorter than them — 21. 19a. Flowers much less than 1 cm. wide Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium nutans. 19b. Flowers more than 1 cm. wide — 20. 20a. Stem-leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium arvense. 20b. Stem-leaves oblong Mouse-ear Chickweed, Cerastium arvense var. oblongifolium. 21a. Bracts green ”

“ At the approach of warm weather, chickadees retreat from public gaze to become temporary recluses in damp, deep woods or woodland swamps where insects are most plentiful. For a few months they give up their friendly flocking ways and live in pairs. Long journeys they do not undertake from the North when it is time to nest; but Southern birds move northward in the spring. Happily the chickadee may find a woodpecker's vacant hole in some hollow tree; worse luck if a new excavation must be made in a decayed birch—the favourite nursery. ”

“ Prominent among the latter are the eggs of the tent-caterpillar moths, both the orchard and forest species. As these are two of our most destructive insects, the good done by the chickadee in devouring their eggs needs no comment. During the winter the chickadee’s food is made up of larvæ, chrysalids, and eggs of moths, varied by a few seeds, but as spring brings out hordes of flying, crawling, and jumping insects, the bird varies its diet by taking also some of these. Flies and bugs are the favorites until the weather becomes quite warm, when beetles and small wasps also are enjoyed. ”

“ He does not leave his summer home and move to a warmer climate just to dodge the snow and sleet. You will find him feeding just as happily in a snowstorm as on a warm spring day, always consuming small insects, their eggs or larvae. Exploring the trunks of trees, hanging upside down on the end of a limb, or hunting larvae on tender leaves, it makes no difference to this sharp-eyed bird. Those of you who feed birds will find the chickadee one of your friendliest customers, for he relishes peanut butter, suet, sunflower seeds or doughnuts and often gets tame enough to eat from your hand. ”

“ If these birds had not become partly domesticated, the foundation of the nest would have been moss (Sphagnum) , with a lining of fur or grouse feathers. My chickadees have changed the nesting habit, using nothing but cotton-batting for foundation and lining. Eight eggs were laid in this nest, and every one hatched.
The flock of chickadees that have gathered at my cabin this winter for food will number about fifty. They are so tame that they enter the cabin and eat from the table. One bird has demonstrated to me that she possesses - 286 - a keen memory and an intelligence that is phenomenal. ”

“ Perhaps no wild bird is more confiding. If a man is at work in the woods in cold weather, and at luncheon will take a little pains to feed the chickadees that are sure to be more or less about him, he will soon have them tame enough to pick up crumbs at his feet, and even to take them from his hand.
Better even than crumbs is a bit of mince pie, or a piece of suet. I have myself held out a piece of suet to a chickadee as I walked through the woods, and have had him fly down at once, perch on my finger like a tame canary, and fall to eating. ”

“ One thing about the nests has always puzzled me. The soft lining has generally more or less rabbit fur. Sometimes, indeed, there is nothing else, and a softer nest one could not wish to see. But where does he get it? He would not, I am sure, pull it out of Br'er Rabbit, as the crow sometimes pulls wool from the sheep's backs. Are his eyes bright enough to find it hair by hair where the wind has blown it, down among the leaves? If so, it must be slow work; but Chickadee is very patient. Sometimes in spring you may surprise him on the ground, where he never goes for food ”

“ No sound in nature more cheery and refreshing than the alternating calls of a little troop of this kind echoing through the glades of the woods on a still, sunny day in winter: the vivacious chatter of the chickadee, the slender, contented pipe of the gold-crest, and the emphatic, business-like hank of the nuthatch, as they drift leisurely along from tree to tree. The winter seems to be the season of holiday enjoyment to the chickadee, and he is never so evidently and conspicuously contented as in very cold weather. In summer he withdraws to the thickets, and becomes less noisy and active. ”

“ These brown capped Chickadees are very abundant throughout the northwest and are even tamer than our United States varieties. They usually make their nests at low elevations in dead and decayed stumps and line the bottom of the cavity, which varies from three to eight inches in depth, with moss and fur. Their eggs, which they lay in May, June or July, are white, specked with reddish brown and cannot with any certainty be distinguished from those of the Black-capped Chickadees, the eggs of all the species showing considerable variations ”

“ Where there is one chickadee there are apt to be more in the neighbourhood; for these sociable, active, cheerful little black-capped fellows in gray like to hunt for their living in loose scattered flocks throughout 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. ”

“ This hardy little fellow, always cheery and lovable, is a familiar figure in our light woods and garden trees in autumn and winter, seeming, by his good-nature and energy, to be trying to console us, in a measure, for the loss of the tree-haunting summer Warblers.
The Chickadee adapts himself to all surroundings and to all circumstances, suiting his appetite to what he can find, when insects fail, taking kindly to seeds, berries, cone-kernels, and crumbs. ”

“ She was very anxious to find a most suitable place.
"My wife said a woodpecker's nest was the very place, but I rather preferred a squirrel's hole.
"For a long time we could find neither to suit us. But at length I heard Mrs. Chickadee calling loudly. I flew to her side at once.
"'What is it?' I cried.
"'Look!' cried Mrs. Chickadee, pointing with her bill and flapping her wings with joy.
"Through the thick of the woods ran a gray old rail fence. Woodbine and wild hop vines wellnigh covered it. The posts were gray where they were not moss-covered. ”

“ The golden-crested kinglet is a little mite of a bird, not four inches long, with a central patch of orange-red on his crown. He breeds in the far North, and wintering here is for him like going to the South. In summer he is a flycatcher, but here he searches the bark of forest trees with microscopic scrutiny for the larvae of insects. We all know the lively black-capped chickadees that fly around in flocks throughout the winter. Sometimes their search for food leads them into the heart of towns and cities, where they are as bold and as much at home as the English sparrow. ”

“ In California, the mountain chickadee has habits about the same, and the Southern States have the tufted titmouse.
All these little fellows are pretty birds in gray, set off with black and white, with lovely soft and fluffy plumage.
The common Chickadee and his brother of the West have black on top of the head and on the throat, and white at the side of the head. They nest in holes in a tree or stump. If they can find the old home of a woodpecker, they are glad to get it, but if they cannot find one, they are able to cut one out for themselves, though it is a hard, long job for them. ”

“ A chickadee is a friendly little fellow. Many times one has come down on to a man's hand or knee. Mr. Torrey once found a pair making their nest, and he climbed up on to a branch of the tree, close by where they were working, so as to watch them. Many birds would have been frightened to have a man so near, but not the brave little chickadees. They stared at him a little, but went right on with their building.
These birds, though so tiny, are among the most useful to us, because they spy out and destroy the insect eggs hidden in crevices of bark, or under leaves. ”

“ The chickadees are great bird-wags. In various ways they play tricks on other birds. When there is hemp-seed in the box, the chickadees are like a lot of children turned out of school. If a tree-sparrow happens along, he takes possession by driving the other birds away. A saucy chickadee will give the danger-call, which sounds to me like "butcher bird, butcher bird." The tree-sparrow darts into the bushes and the chickadees pile onto the seed-box. The sparrow finding that there is no enemy about soon returns to the seed-box. ”

“ To the bottom of their holes they bring pieces of wool, moss, and feathers or hair, and weave warm carpets and curtains to make cosy their little homes. 128
The Chickadees are very active, lively little things. They are always in motion; now hopping along in search of food, sending forth the peculiar cry that gives them their name, and then alighting on the tree limbs and moving from one tree to another “traversing,” as Wilson, a great authority on birds, says, “the woods in regular procession from tree to tree, and in this manner traveling several miles a day.” ”

“ Habitat: Black-capped chickadees nest throughout southern Canada and the northern half of the United States. In Missouri, the black-capped chickadee generally nests north of the Missouri River and the Carolina chickadee nests south of the River. The breeding range extends farther south at higher elevations of the Rocky and Appalachian Mountain ranges than in non-mountainous areas. In Colorado, black-caps are most abundant in the ponderosa pine and aspen forests (Bailey and Niedrach 1965) . ”

“ The chickadee is indeed a truly Emersonian bird, and the poet shows him to be both a hero and a philosopher. Hardy, active, social, a winter bird no less than a summer, a defier of both frost and heat, lover of the pine-tree, and diligent searcher after truth in the shape of eggs and larvae of insects, preëminently a New England bird, clad in black and ashen gray, with a note the most cheering and reassuring to be heard in our January woods,—I know of none other of our birds so well calculated to captivate the Emersonian muse. ”

“ Across the pasture I hear the rich voice of an oriole stopping his caterpillar hunting long enough to trill a round phrase or two from the apple-tree bough. A flock of chickadees, old and young, comes through, nervously active in their hunting and with voices in which there is a tang of the coming autumn. Up in the pines a blue jay clamors with the same clarion ring in his tones. ”

“ In summer he withdraws to the thickets, and becomes less noisy and active. His plumage becomes dull, and his brisk note changes to a fine, delicate pee-peh-wy, or oftenest a mere whisper. They are so much less noticeable at this season that one might suppose they had followed their gold-crest companions to the North, as some of them doubtless do, but their nests are not uncommon with us. Fearless as the chickadee is in winter,—so fearless, that, if you stand still, he will alight upon your head or shoulder,—in summer he becomes cautious about his nest, and will desert it, if much watched. ”