210 



SUBSPECIES. The Long-billed Marsh Wren is divided into several subspecies; the 

 Eastern Marsh Wren, the only form in which we are directly interested in eastern Canada, 

 is the type form of the species. 



Wide wet swamps and quaking bogs grown with cat-tails or reeds are 

 the places frequented by this wren. 



FAMILY — CERTHIIDiE. CREEPERS. 



The name of the only eastern Canadian Creeper, the Brown Creeper, 

 describes the bird very well. It is a small brown bird that creeps or 

 climbs woodpecker-fashion on the trunks and larger branches of forest 

 trees. It is smaller than any Canadian Woodpecker and the bill is com- 

 paratively long, light, delicately tapered, and sickle-shaped (Figure 64, 

 p. 28), adapted for extracting small insects and insects' eggs from narrow 

 cavities but not for chiselling in even the softest wood or bark to reach 

 them. The tail is rather long and stiff and the claws are quite long and 

 much curved. 



726. Brown Creeper. American brown creeper, fr. — le grimpereau d'am^ ri- 

 QUE. Certhia familiaris. L, 5-66. Plate XLVI A. 



Distinctions. The brown and white stripings, lacking in decided design; the fine, 

 delicate, sickle-shaped bill and long stiff tail feathers, worn on the tips, are easily recognized 

 distinctions of the species. 



Field Marks. Our only small brown bird with pronounced tree-creeping habits. 



Nesting. Behind the loose bark of trees in nest of twigs, strips of bark, bits of dead 

 wood, moss, etc. 



Distribution. As a species, occupying most of the northern hemisphere. In eastern 

 North America the Eastern Creeper is the native subspecies, in Canada extending west as 

 far as the prairie provinces and north to beyond settlement. 



SUBSPECIES. The Brown Creeper occurs in the Old as well as the New World. 

 The species is divided into several subspecies in America, only one of which, the Eastern 

 Brown Creeper C.f. americania, occurs in eastern Canada. 



Pressed tightly to the trunk of forest trees the Brown Creeper may 

 be seen spiralling up the perpendicular trunk and industriously gleaning 

 from every crack and crevice in the bark. Reaching the section where 

 the branches begin to grow smaller and the bark smooth it drops down 

 to the base of an adjoining tree and works upward again, never hurrying, 

 never pausing, filling its stomach with small beetles, larvae, and insect 

 eggs. The skill with which this bird can cling to smooth surfaces is remark- 

 able. The writer once knew a Brown Creeper to climb the polished 

 corner of a black walnut bookcase wi4}h as much unconcern as if it had 

 been the roughest barked oak in the woods. 



Economic Status. The Brown Creeper is purely insectivorous in its 

 habits and its constant microscopic attention to every little crevice in 

 the rough bark must account for innumerable insect pests. Most of 

 its work is done in the woods but as the bird frequently appears in the 

 orchard and on shade and ornamental trees about the town and house 

 the species has a powerful beneficial influence. 



FAMILY — SITTID^. NUTHATCHES. 



The JNuthatches are small, woodpecker-like birds in general habit 

 but their toes are of the usual passerine type with three toes in front and 



