76 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



shows through the feathers in hair-like patches. According to the best of my 

 observations with a powerful field glass, they are fed by regurgitation until 4 

 days old. After that a visible supply of insect food is given them. Their tirst 

 journey from home is a creeping about on the bark of the nest tree, to which 

 they cling desperately, aided by their sharp little tails. Instinctively they pick 

 at every crevice in the bark, and soon become so business-like about it that they 

 are quite independent of the adults and of each other. 



The plumage changes, food, behavior, and voice of the Sierra 

 creeper are all, apparently, similar to those of the other western 

 subspecies and not very different from those of the eastern race. 



Winter. — Although permanently resident throughout)* the year in 

 the Transition Zone of the mountains, the Sierra creeper to some 

 extent wanders down into the foothills and into somewhat different 

 environments in winter. In the Lassen Peak region, Grinnell, Dixon, 

 and Linsdale (1930) found it "present in winter on the western slope 

 down to the lowest altitudes. * * * Although seen usually in 

 rather thick woods, creepers sometimes were found, as at 7 miles east 

 of Red Bluff on December 30, 1927, on the trunks of small, far- 

 separated blue oaks. In winter single creepers were sometimes seen 

 moving along with flocks of feeding bush-tits and kinglets." 



John G. Tyler (1913) writes: "The winter of 1910-11 was remark- 

 able for the number of unusual visitants among our avian friends, 

 that appeared in the vicinity of Fresno. By no means the least inter- 

 esting of these were the little creepers, which occurred quite nmner- 

 ously in the willow trees that border some of the larger ditches, and 

 doubtless elsewhere as well." 



CERTHIA FAMILLA.RIS OCCIDENTALIS Ridgway 



CALIFORNIA CREEPER 



HABITS 



The California creeper occupies the long coastal strip from Sitka, 

 Alaska, to Monterey County, Calif., living in the Canadian and 

 Transition Zones. Whereas the other western races of the brown 

 creeper are mountain birds, during the breeding season at least, this 

 coastal race seems to live and breed at much lower levels, even almost 

 down to sea level. In California it breeds in the great redwood forests, 

 and from there down as far as the Point Lobos Reserve, where Grinnell 

 and Linsdale (1936) found it nesting in the pines. There "a slight 

 preference was shown for the thicker stands of trees, especially where 

 there were old trunks, but this bird followed other species even out 

 among scattered young trees; probably the whole area of pines was 

 covered." 



D. E. Brown showed me some of his favorite collecting grounds 

 near South Tacoma, Wash., in which the California creeper was breed- 

 ing quite commonly, together with several other interesting birds 



