74 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Nevada of California, but its range has since been extended north- 

 ward to southern British Columbia and northern Idaho, and south- 

 ward to the San Jacinto Mountains of California. 



The characters given by the describer are: "Similar to Certhia f. 

 OGcidentalis but colors more dusky and less ruf escent ; rump decidedly 

 contrasted with rest of upper parts ; similar to Certhia f. montana but 

 much darker; light centers of feathers on head and back much re- 

 duced." In this race, the rump and upper tail coverts are between 

 "chestnut" and "hazel," whereas in montana these parts are "cinna- 

 mon-rufous." In OGcidentalis the color of the rump blends into that 

 of the back, while in selotes and montana the colors of these parts are 

 sharply contrasted. Dr. Osgood says further: "This subspecies has 

 generally been included under the name occidentalis but it seems to 

 be more similar to montana and its characters might be considered 

 intermediate between those of these two. They are perfectly constant 

 throughout its range, however, so that the form is easily recognizable." 



In the Lassen Peak region in summer Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale 

 (1930) found the Sierra creeper above 3,300 feet, where it breeds. 

 "The range of situations through which the brown creeper feeds is 

 indicated by the following list of trees, on the trunks or limbs of which 

 individuals were observed : valley oak, live oak, blue oak, digger pine, 

 yellow pine, white fir, incense cedar, lodgepole pine. Deciduous trees 

 predominate within the winter range of the creeper, while coniferous 

 trees predominate in the territory occupied in summer." 



In the San Bernardino Mountains, in southern California, Dr. 

 Grinnell (1907) found the Sierra creeper more numerous than he 

 had ever seen it elsewhere. "While observed from an altitude of 

 5,600 feet in the Santa Ana Canyon to as high as 9,500 feet, above 

 Dry Lake, on the north base of San Gorgonio Peak, yet the creepers 

 were most abundantly represented in the canyons from 6,000 to 7,500 

 feet. This belt of abundance was also the belt in the Transition 

 Zone where the incense cedar {Lihocedrus decurrens) is conspicu- 

 ously represented." 



Nesting. — Keferring to his experience in the San Bernardinos, Dr. 

 Grinnell (1907) writes: 



Although the majority of the nests found were on cedar trunks, one was 

 on a Jeffrey pine, and at least five were on silver firs. In the latter cases 

 the trees were dead and rotting, for it was only on dead trees that the bark 

 had become loosened and separated enough from the trunk to afford the nar- 

 row sheltered spaces sought by the creepers for nesting sites. But the huge 

 living cedar trunks furnished the ideal situations. For the bark on these 

 is longitudinally ridged and fibrous, and it frequently becomes split into inner 

 and outer layers, the latter hanging in broad loose strips. The narrow spaces 

 behind these necessitate a very compressed style of nest. A typical nest closely 

 studied by me may be described as follows : 



The material employed externally was cedar bark strips one-eighth to one- 



