88 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



CREEPERS: FAMILY CERTHIID^ 



Brown Creeper. Certhia familiaris americana 



5.66 



Ad. — Head, upper back, and wings brown, finely speckled with 

 gray ; rump reddish-brown ; tail grayish brown, unspeckled ; 

 tail-feathers pointed ; under parts white ; bills slender, slightly 

 curved. 



Nest, in a crevice under a flake of bark. Eggs, white, spotted 

 chiefly about the larger end with reddish-brown. 



The Brown Creeper is a winter visitant in southern New 

 York and Xew England from the end of September to the 

 end of April ; in northern New York and New England it 

 is absent or rare in winter. In summer it inhabits the deep 

 woods of the Canadian Zone, keeping chiefly to the spruces, 

 but occurring also in forests of hard wood. Nests of the 

 Brown Creeper have occasionally been found in eastern ]Mas- 

 sachusetts, but its occurrence there in summer is exceptional 

 (see map, p. 15). It is everywhere a common migrant in 

 April, late September, and early October. It spends its whole 

 existence on the trunks and large limbs of trees. In winter 

 it often associates with Chickadees and Kinglets, and like 

 tliem has routes along the village streets and through the 

 plantations, or through the woods. It may often be detected 

 by its note, a thin, fine screep^ like the Kinglet's, but not 

 broken into parts, and almost exactly like the Cedar-bird's 

 wheeze. Soon the eye is caught by the flutter of the Creeper 

 from one tree to the base of the next. Its usual method of 

 feeding is to ascend close to the trunk, partly supported by its 

 tail, often making a spiral and reappearing higher up, or fly- 

 ing off to becjin agjain at the base of the same or another tree. 



In March or April a well-trained ear may occasionally 

 hear the Creeper's song, a wiry little performance suggesting 

 the syllables, wees, wee'-si, wi-see'. If two are together at 

 this season, they utter a slight tsip, and often engage in an 

 animated chase among the trees. 



