SIERRA CREEPER 73 



ing darker above and pale brownish gray below, white only on the 

 chin and throat, and with a chestnut, rather than a tawny, rump. 



Nesting. — On more than one occasion we spent considerable time 

 following a Mexican creeper about among the dead and living pines 

 near the summit of the Huachuca Mountains, for we knew that eventu- 

 ally the male would call the female off the nest to feed her. Twice 

 the male came near what proved to be the nesting tree, and twice we 

 saw him feed the female ; but it was not until the second time that we 

 were able to trace her path back to the nest. She went into a little 

 hole in a big piece of loose bark that hung under a branch, about 35 

 feet from the ground and near the top of a scraggly dead pine. 



The foundation of the nest, which was firmly attached to the bark, 

 consisted of dry pine needles and a few fine twigs; the cup of the 

 nest was well made of fine strips of inner bark and it was profusely 

 lined with feathers. Mr. Willard made the difficult climb to this nest 

 (pi. 17) and secured a set of five fresh eggs on May 15, 1922. 



Another set of five eggs was taken, in the same locality on May 

 30, from a similar nest placed behind a big slab of loose bark on a 

 large dead pine, but only 6 feet above the ground. 



Eggs. — I have seen as many as six eggs and as few as four in sets 

 of the Mexican creeper. These are similar to the eggs of other 

 creepers, though what few eggs I have seen are of the finely speckled 

 type. The measurements of 26 eggs average 15.3 by 11.8 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 16.4 by 11.4, 14.1 by 12.2, 

 13.9 by 11.4, and 14.7 by 10.9 millimeters. 



Young. — Referring to the Huachuca Mountains, Swarth (1904b) 

 writes : "About the middle of July young birds began to appear, and 

 they seemed more abundant at this time than at any other. As with 

 many other species breeding in the higher parts of the range, a down- 

 ward movement began about this time, and though never descending 

 to the foothills, in the late summer Creepers were found scattered all 

 through the upper part of the oak belt. The juveniles seem to be 

 attended by their parents for a long time, for up to the first week in 

 September, when young and old were practically indistinguishable 

 in size and general appearance, the families still clung together, and 

 the old birds were seen continually feeding their offspring." 



This creeper seems to be only a summer resident in Arizona. 



CERTHIA FAMILIARIS ZELOTES Osgood 



SIERRA CREEPER 



Plate 18 



HABITS 



Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1901) described this form from specimens 

 collected in the southern Cascade Mountains of Oregon and the Sierra 



