88 Brewer on the American Brown Creeper. 



Richardson had few if any opportunities to explore regions con- 

 genial to this species. It is a well-known fact that our Creeper is 

 abundant throughout Newfoundland, where the forests have not 

 been swept off by fire, as in a large part of the peninsula of Lab- 

 rador, as far north as latitude 52°. It is also known to occur in 

 Manitoba to very nearly the same parallel of latitude, and in 1850 

 I saw in Halifax examples that had been procured in Northeastern 

 Labrador. Examples are also collected there by Moravian collectors 

 and sent by them to Europe. Inasmuch as there is so little per- 

 ceptible specific difference between our Creeper and the Gerthia 

 hnniliaris of Europe, there is good reason to believe that the habits 

 and distribution are essentially the same, and that the northern dis- 

 tribution of both is limited only by the presence or absence of large 

 forests. The European bird is known to range as far north as lati- 

 tude 63°, both in Norway and Sweden. The specimens received 

 from the Moravian settlements in Labrador were from a latitude of 

 at least 57°. 



Another point still involved in obscurity, so far as I am aware, 

 is one that can hardly fail to be soon solved by the hosts of observ- 

 ing explorers in the field. This is to what extent our Creeper 

 breeds among wooded mountains south of latitude 42°, and how far 

 south it may occur as a common species in the breeding season. 

 Up to 1874 I had known of but a single instance of its nesting, aud 

 that in one of the Grand Menan group of islands. Since then I 

 have known of its nesting in Northern New Hampshire, in Maine, 

 and, more recently, near Lynn, Mass., and last summer in Taunton, 

 Mass. I have no doubt, therefore, that it will be found breeding 

 in elevated forests somewhat farther south than any place to which 

 as yet it has been traced. 



In "Ninth American Birds" it is said to breed in hollow trees, 

 in the deserted holes of Woodpeckers, and in decayed stumps and 

 branches of trees. This statement is rather Legendary than posi- 

 tively ascertained, and I am now inclined t" somewhat modify this 

 opinion, the more so that I learn from Mr. Dresser thai the Euro- 

 pean C.Jcmiiliaru usually places its nest between the detached 

 bark and the trunk of a large tree. This exactly describes the situ- 

 ation of the nest found in Grand Menan, ami of six or seven other 

 nesta since identified and described to me. All of these nests have 

 been in just BUoh situations and in no other. Instead of this being 

 exceptional, it is probable that this is our Creeper's must usual 



