68 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Fall mid winter. — The earliest brown creepers that come down into 

 southern New England in fall find the woods almost silent and deserted. 

 The jolly little summer residents have mostly begun their journey 

 southward, and few migrants from the north have arrived thus early — 

 only the vanguard of the blackpoll flight and the earliest juncos. It is 

 sometimes in the first half of September when the first creepers quietly 

 and almost unnoticed appear on their winter quarters, before the trees 

 have dropped their leaves, and when the first frost may be a month 

 away, yet they bring us long in advance the first hint of winter. Dur- 

 ing their migration, we often see the creepers on the trees bordering 

 the streets of our towns, in our city parks, almost anywhere where there 

 are large trees, but for the winter months they settle in woodlands or 

 in the trees of large estates. 



Speaking of the creeper on Mount Mitchell, N. C. Thomas D. Bur- 

 leigh (1941) says : "Unlike the preceding [red-breasted nuthatch] this 

 species, while it nests in the fir and spruce woods at the top of the 

 mountain, invariably retreats to the valleys in late fall and has never 

 been found above an altitude of approximately 4,500 feet during the 

 winter months." 



Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Argue had a very unusual experience on 

 October 31, 1944, at Newburyport, Mass., near the seacoast. Mr. Argue 

 writes: "Walking toward Pine Island [a wooded area in the marsh] 

 we observed 20 brown creepers. The birds were climbing up the sides 

 of buildings, up telephone poles, and fence posts as well as trees. Pro- 

 ceeding to Pine Island we found 30 more creepers. Here they were 

 on trees and rocks and even on the ground. One bird alighted for a 

 moment on my trouser leg." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The greater part of the Northern Hemisphere ; in America, 

 from southern Alaska and southern Canada to Nicaragua. 



Breeding range. — In America the breeding range of the brown 

 creeper extends north to southern Alaska (Tyonek and the Kenai 

 Peninsula) ; northern British Columbia (Flood Glacier, Nine Mile 

 Mountain, and Hazelton) ; central Alberta (Glenevis and Camrose) ; 

 southern Manitoba (Winnipeg) ; central Ontario (Kapuskasing, 

 Cobalt, and Ottawa) ; southern Quebec (Rouge River Valley and 

 Grand Greve) ; and Newfoundland (Steplienville). East to New- 

 foundland ( Stephen ville and Makinsons Grove) ; New Brunswick 

 (Bathurst) ; Nova Scotia (Advocate) ; Massachusetts (Essex County 

 and Mount Graylock) ; and in the mountains south to North Carolina 

 (Grandfather Mountain) . South to western North Carolina (Grand- 

 father Mountain) ; Tennessee (Mount Gu3'ot) ; northern Michigan 

 (Beaver Islands) ; Minnesota (St. Paul) ; eastern Nebraska (Omaha 



