BIRDS OF KANSAS. 623 



tree, and creep upwards as before, repeating the performance, 

 as thej cannot creep downward like the Nuthatches. Their 

 feet and sharp claws are admirably adapted to climbing, and 

 their stiff tails keep them erect as they ascend. 



They are not wild, but rather shy, and manage to keep on the 

 opposite side of the trees from the intruder. Their presence 

 would seldom be noticed were it not for their oft-repeated, feeble, 

 but sharp, creaky ''Cree-cree-cree-cree, " and occasional soft, lisp- 

 ing "Chip." 



I am unacquainted with their breeding habits, and therefore 

 take pleasure in quoting the following description of their song 

 and nests, from Mr. Wm. Brewster's observations during the 

 months of May and June, in the timbered regions of Lake Um- 

 bagog, in Western Maine: 



"He is a frequent, but scarcely a persistent singer, 

 and his voice, though one of the sweetest that ever rises in the 

 depth of the northern forests, is never a very conspicuous sound 

 in the woodlands where he makes his home. This is due to the 

 fact that his song is short, and by no means powerful, but its 

 tones are so exquisitely pure and tender, that I have never heard 

 it without a desire to linger in the vicinity until it has been many 

 times repeated. It consists of a bar of four notes — the first of 

 moderate pitch, the second lower and less emphatic, the third 

 rising again, and the last abruptly falling, but dying away in an 

 indescribably plaintive cadence, like the soft sigh of the wind 

 among the pine boughs. I can compare it to no other bird voice 

 that I have ever heard. In the pitch and succession of the notes 

 it somewhat resembles the song of the Carolina Titmouse {Parus 

 caroUnensis), but the tone is infinitely purer and sweeter. Like 

 the wonderful melody of the Winter Wren, it is in perfect keep- 

 ing with the mysterious gloom of the woods; a wild, clear voice, 

 that one feels would lose its greatest charm if exposed to cheer- 

 ful light and commonplace surroundings. 



"Among the other voices, I shortly detected the sweet, wild 

 song of the Brown Creeper, and, looking more carefully, spied 

 a pair of these industrious little gleaners winding their way up 

 the trunk of a neighboring tree. Although I watched them 



