682 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



before it reaches the main limbs and it may then continue its course upward, 

 but more often it takes flight and passes directly to the foot of some neigh- 

 boring tree to repeat the performance. More rarely still it may be seen 

 creeping along a large branch of some forest tree, or stationary for several 

 seconds at some productive spot on a dead branch. It is so like the brown 

 bark on which it spends most of its life that it is not likely to be seen unless 

 specially looked for. 



Its usual call-note is a high-pitched "seet, seet, seet, seet," occasionally 

 uttered singly, but more often repeated two, three, or more times. 



During migration the bird moves in little squads of three to a dozen, 

 sometimes associated with warblers, vireos and other birds, but in winter 

 it is almost invariably with a troup of Chickadees, Nuthatches, Kinglets, 

 and Downy Woodpeckers, and these apparently keep together nearly all 

 day. The food gleaned from the crevices of bark consists very largely 

 of insect eggs and the dormant larvse and pupse of insects, and so far as 

 we know the bird takes no vegetable food whatever. That it is decidedly 

 beneficial is usually assumed and probably with safety, since the awl-like 

 beak enables it to reach into crevices which are inaccessible to any other 

 bird except possibly to the woodpeckers after some digging. 



The Creeper doubtless nests occasionally in every county in the state, 

 but in such small numbers in the southern counties that it has quite generally 

 escaped detection. According to Dr. Gibbs Mr. W. A. Gunn observed 

 a pair of these birds building a nest in Ottawa county May 19, 1879. "It 

 was placed about forty feet from the ground, under the bark of a dead 

 pine at the edge of a pinery. I went to the spot and found the nest quite 

 inaccessible." Leon J. Cole states that a nest was found near Grand 

 Rapids by Mr. Owen Durfee, but was broken up. Several other observers 

 record the presence of the bird in summer in the lower counties of the 

 state, but we know of no other nest being found. North of the Saginaw- 

 Grand Valley the bird is resident through the summer in considerable 

 numbers, and is reported as nesting commonly in all suitable places. Miss 

 Flora L. Mowbray states that it is common and nests at Marquette, and 

 it is also reported as breeding at Ludington, Mason county, by Miss Ida 

 McClatchie. The writer found it fairly common on Beaver Island, Lake 

 Michigan, in July 1904, and he also found it in Mackinac, Alger and 

 Chippewa counties in 1903. 



The nest seems to be placed invariably beneath a partly loosened sheet 

 of bark which is still attached firmly to the tree, and which shelters it 

 from the w^eather as well as from observation. In the narrow space be- 

 tween the bark and the tree the bird constructs a substantial but somewhat 

 irregular nest of twigs and shreds of bark of various kinds, and lays four 

 to six eggs, which are white or creamy white, speckled chiefly at the larger 

 end with reddish brown. They average .60 by .48 inches. 



Few have heard the Creeper's song, the call-notes already described 

 being the only ones usually heard. Mr. Brewster, however, states that 

 during the nesting season it is a frequent singer and its voice "though 

 one of the sweetest that ever rises in the thickets of northern forests, 

 is never a very conspicuous song. This is due to the fact that the 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 falhng, but dying away in an 



