LAND BIRDS. 681 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill more than .50 inch in length. 



Adult: Crown witli a median stripe of rich brown, bordered on each side with brownish 

 black; back brownish black, streaked with white, the rump and upper tail-coverts cinnamon; 

 under parts pure white along the middle line, the sides, from neck to tail, pale brown, 

 unspotted; wings and tail brown, with numerous narrow dark cross-bars; lores and a line 

 over the eye white. Sexes alike. 



Length 4.25 to 5.50 inches; wing 1.80 to 2.10; tail 1.60 to 1.90; culmen .54. 



Family 08. CERTHIID/E. Creepers. 

 Only one Michigan species, the Bi'own Creeper. 



309. Brown Creeper. Certhia familiaris americana Buna/p. (726) 



Synonyms: Common Creeper, American Creeper, American Brown Creeper, Tree 

 Creeper. — Certhia americana, Bonap., 1838.^ — Certhia familiaris, Vieill., 1807, Nutt., 

 1832, Wilson, 1808, Aud., 1839.— Certhia familiaris fusca, A. O. U. Conunittce, 1899.— 

 Certhia familiaris americana, Brewst., 1879, A. O. U. Check-list, 1886. 



Streaked with brown and black above, except on the rump, which is 

 bright reddish brown; below dull white or ashy, unstreaked; wing-feathers 

 marbled with whitish or buffy. The curved, awl-like bill and long, sharp, 

 woodpecker-like tail-feathers, combined with the very long, sharp, curvecl 

 claws, are distinctive. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding from the northern 

 and more elevated parts of the United States northward, and casually 

 farther south, migrating southward in winter. 



This little bird, although known to comparatively few, is nevertheless 

 an al)undant migrant throughout the state and a common summer resident 

 in all forested parts, especially where evergreens arc found. It is also 

 by no means a rare winter resident in most of the Lower Peninsula, very 

 possibly everywhere in the state. Like most other species, however, the 

 bird is distinctly migratory, and it seems reasonably certain that those 

 individuals which linger through the winter at any point are not the ones 

 which are there in summer, but have come from farther north. Owing 

 to this shifting of the whole species, and the fact that in many places some 

 individuals arc pi'csent the year around, the exact times of migration are 

 somewhat difficult to determine. The greatest movement, however, 

 seems to take place between April 15 ancl ]\Iay 15, and again l^ctwcen 

 September 15 and October 15, when the bird is much more common than 

 at other seasons and appears in groves, parks and orchai'ds, often in con- 

 siderable numbers. There are no records of specimens killed on IMichigan 

 lighthouses except in the fall, the records for Spectacle llccf Light being 

 September 14, 1894, Septcml)er 26, 1886 and October 5, 1889, 1890 and 

 1895. From its habit of crcci)ing up the sides of buildings, as well as of 

 trees, it not infi-ecpiently enters open windows and is one of the small 

 birds most fref[uently entrapped in this way. 



The habits of the Brown Creeper are very definite and characteristic. 

 It alights sudilenly at the ])ottom of a tree and clim])s spirally up 

 the trunk, travelling by little jumps or "hitches," pausing every few 

 inches to probe some crevice in the bark for food and then pursu'ng its 

 upward course. Often it makes one or more complete circuits of the truid'C 



