200 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



ward or at least in an upright position. From 

 one-half or two-thirds of the way up a tree, it is 

 likely to swoop down to the base of another one 

 nearby, only to go through the same operation. 



Drawing by R. Bruce Horsfall 



BROWN CREEPER (nat. i 



It may readily be identified by these characteris- 

 tics, plus the peculiarities that it has a noticeably 

 long graduated tail, nearly or quite as long as 

 the wing, with the feathers stiffened and pointed 

 at the end, and that it clings closely to the bark. 



William Brewster says that in its breeding 

 ground in the Canadian forests it has a sweet song 

 of four notes, the last of which dies away " in 

 an indescribably plaintive cadence, like the soft 

 sigh of the wind among the pine boughs " ; but 

 this utterance is seldom heard during its migra- 

 tion through the United States. Mr. Burroughs 

 has heard it in Ulster county, N. Y., in March. 



The food of the Brown Creeper consists of 

 minute insects and insects' eggs, also cocoons of 

 tineid moths, small wasps, ants, and bugs, es- 

 pecially scales and plant lice, with some small 

 caterpillars. As it remains in the United States 

 throughout the year, it naturally secures hiber- 

 nating insects and insects' eggs, as well as spiders 

 and spiders' eggs, that are missed by the summer 

 birds. On its bill of fare we find no product of 

 husbandry nor any useful insects. 



There are four other members of this same 

 Creeper family in North America. They vary 

 but little from the familiar Brown Creeper and 

 from one another. The Mexican, or Sierra 

 Madre, Creeper (Ccrfhia fainiliarts albescens) 

 belongs in the mountains of Mexico as its name 

 implies, but is also foimd north into southern 

 Arizona. The Rocky Moimtain Creeper (Ccrthia 

 fainiliaris montana) lives in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains from Alaska, central British Columbia, and 

 central Alberta, south to Arizona and New 

 Mexico ; in winters it may be found in south- 

 eastern California and probably in Mexico. The 

 Sierra, formerly known as the California, 

 Creeper (Ccrth'ta faniiliaris zelofcs) is found 

 from the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and the 

 Sierra Nevada of California south to the San 

 Jacinto Mountains and in the winter in the ad- 

 jacent valleys. The California, formerly known 

 as the Tawny Creeper (Certhia fainiliaris occi- 

 dcntalis), occurs on the Pacific coast from Sitka, 

 Alaska, to the Santa Cruz Mountains, California. 



WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 

 Sitta carolinensis carolinensis Latliam 



A. n. U. Number 727 See Color Plate lo,! 



Other Names. — White-bellied Nuthatch ; Carolina 

 Nuthatch; Common Nuthatch; Sapsucker (incorrect); 

 Tree-Mouse ; Devil Downhead. 



General Dfescription. — Length. 6 inches. Upper 

 parts, bhiish-gray and black; under parts, white. 



Color. — Crown, hindneck, and extreme upper back, 



