THE BROWN CREEPER 



Creeper Family— Certhiidce 



Length: About 5^ inches. 



Male and Female; Brown above, mottled with gray, buff, and 

 white; under parts white. A whitish line aver eye; 

 bill long, curved; a bar of buff across wings; tail- 

 feathers long, sharply pointed; upper tail-coverts 

 bright reddish-brown. 



Note: A faint, monotonous, skreek-skreek, skreek-skreek. 



Song: According to Brewster, the brown creeper sings an un- 

 usually sweet song during the nesting season. 



Habitat: Tree-trunks, which are carefully inspected by these 

 industrious birds. 



Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from Nebraska, In- 

 diana, the mountains of North Carolina «nd Massa- 

 chusetts north to southern Canada; also in the 

 mountains of western North America from Alaska to 

 Nicaragua; winters over most of its range. 



THE Brown Creeper should inherit the earth, for he 

 is one of the -most perfect examples of meekness 

 that may be found. Small, slight, self-effacing, untiring 

 in his work, he reminds one of a quiet industrious person 

 who performs unremittingly small tasks that amount to a 

 large total. 



He is a searcher for insect-eggs, and for insects so small 

 that they might escape the notice of eyes not peculiarly 

 fitted to espy them. His long bill is slender enough to 

 slip into -crevices which neither nuthatches nor woodpeck- 

 ers investigate. Possibly it is because he selects such tiny 



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