92 



The Ottawa Naturalist. [August 



NOTES ON THE NESTING HABITS OF THE BROWN 

 CREEPER AND HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE. 



By L. McI. Terrill, Montreal. 

 In an article on the Brown Creeper someone has observed 

 that this bird searched for its food as if it had lost the one thing 

 necessary to life, and ignored the onlooker completely in its 

 endeavours to find it. Nevertheless, I had occasion, on July 14th 

 of this year, to find a bird startled out of its monotonous occupa- 

 tion. Whilst walking through a piece of hardwood, interspersed 

 with small clumps of evergreens, and bordering on a large cedar 

 swamp, I heard a bird uttering peeps of alarm, and, on looking 

 for the cause, saw a Brown Creeper in a very nervous state, 

 flitting from tree to tree without thinking of its usual occupation. 

 Thinking there was a nest, I started towards a likely-looking 

 balsam stub, and, on striking the tree there was a great commo- 

 tion at its base, whereupon several young creepers fluttered away 

 in different directions. This was evidently their debut from the 

 nest, and instinctively they flew to the nearest trees and'ascending 

 spirally, picking the tree at intervals with weak little pecks, com- 

 menced their tradional life search. 



To return to the nest, I found that I had broken off a large 

 piece of bark about two feet from the base of the stub, thus dis- 

 closing the nest, which was fastened to the loose bark with 

 threads of spiders' silk. It was a very deep structure though 

 necessarily much flattened (as the bark was only about three 

 inches from the trunk at its widest) in the shape of an elongated 

 one-sided wedge. It was composed of dead lichen-covered twigs 

 of spruce, balsam and tamarac, thrown together in a very loose 

 mass with a lining of shreds of the inner bark of balsam. Its 

 outside depth measured eight inches, the diameter parallel with 

 the trunk five, and the other diameter two and one-half. The 

 bark and trunk formed the boundaries of the nest cavity, which 

 was perfectly flat. The nest also contained one infertile egg, 

 which was rather elongated, of a shining creamy white slightly 

 flecked on the larger end with reddish flesh colour. 



I counted six young birds which, with the infertile egg, made 

 seven originally contained in the nest. 



