Rural School Leaflet 1127 



support it ; the bill is long and curved for prying into the crevices of the 

 bark. It seldom seems to rest or even to break the monotony of its 

 search for insects by singing. The creeper's only note while with us 

 during the fall, the winter, and the spring, is a high-pitched sibilant whistle, 

 which is delivered without pausing. In searching for food the brown 

 creeper starts at the base of a tree and winds a spiral course to the top, 

 only to swoop quickly to the base of the next tree, and repeat its perform- 

 ance. As Dr. Meams has written, " The creeper has many ups and downs 

 in its life though, on the whole, it is a monotonous career of labor." 



The creeper has but little fear of man, and ventures even to the center 

 of large cities. Often, if one remains quiet, it will fly to the base of a 

 tree only a few feet away, and creep up perfectly unconcerned, but at 

 the least movement it is quick to hitch around to the opposite side of 

 the tree. 



Most of the brown creepers go farther north than New York State to 

 nest, but some remain in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and the cooler 

 swamps in other parts of the State. The nest, which is made of fine 

 twigs, bark, and moss, is usually placed beneath loosened pieces of bark, 

 from two to twenty feet from the ground. The eggs number from five 

 to eight, and are white marked with brown and lavender chiefly about the 

 larger end. 



BARN SWALLOW 



Size. — About the size of an English sparrow, but much more slender. 

 General color. — Above steel blue; below brownish orange. 

 Distinctive features. — The long pointed wings, the deeply forked tail, 

 and the orange under parts will distinguish it. 



There are six different kinds of swallows found in New York State, 

 of which the bam swallow is probably the most common and best known. 

 They all have long, pointed wings and peculiar flat heads with small 

 bills, but the bam swallow is the only one that has the deeply forked 

 tail. Two of the six swallows are brown above, and the other four are 

 dark steel blue. 



Of the brown swallows, the bank, or sand, swallow can easily be distin- 

 guished from the rough-winged swallow by the conspicuous dark band 

 across its breast, contrasting with the white throat and under parts. 

 The entire throat of the rough-winged swallow is dark and the rest of 

 the under parts grayish white. 



Of the blue-backed swallows, the purple martin is much larger than 

 any of the rest, and the under parts, as well as the back, are dark steel 

 blue. The female, however, is grayer. The tree swallow looks con- 

 siderably like the bam swallow, but has the under parts snow}' white 

 instead of dull orange, and does not have the deeply forked tail. The 



