3l8 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



194. Mniotilta varia (Linn.). 

 Black and White Warbler. Black and White Creeper. 



Abundant migrant and very common summer resident. 



SEASONAL occurrence. 



April 21. 1 87 1, one male seen, Belmont, W. Brewster. 



April 25 — September 5. 

 October i, 1899, °"s mz^e seen, Cambridge Region, W. Faxon. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 18 — 30. 



The Black and White Creeper used to breed sparingly in the country 

 immediately to the westward of Mount Auburn as well as on the wooded ridges 

 and islands in the Fresh Pond Swamps. I do not think that it now occurs any- 

 where in the more eastern parts of the Cambridge Region e.xcepting at its sea- 

 sons of migration, when it appears regularly, and often rather numerously, in 

 our city gardens, especially in late August. It is a common summer resident 

 of the wilder portions of Lexington, Arlington, Belmont and Waltham, where 

 it is very generally distributed, frequenting both high and low ground, and ever- 

 green as well as deciduous trees. Its favorite haunts, however, are densely 

 shaded rocky hillsides and dry upland woods deeply carpeted with dead leaves. 

 Here its wiry, monotonous song may be heard at all hours of the day and in every 

 kind of weather from the latter part of April to near the close of summer. 

 Even when the birds are silent, as they rarely are for many consecutive min- 

 utes, at least in May and June, they are not likely to be overlooked, for they 

 have almost no fear of man, and their sharply contrasted black and white or 

 grayish markings and active movements make them peculiarly conspicuous. 

 Especially so are they when seen, as is usually the case, on the trunks or larger 

 branches of forest trees. Around and along these they wind and clamber, 

 somewhat more hurriedly and less systematically than do Nuthatches, Wood- 

 peckers or true Creepers {Ccrthia) and otherwise after a fashion peculiarly their 

 own. One would not expect birds so eminently arboreal by habit to hatch and 

 rear their young on the ground, but that is where they build their nests, usually 

 at the foot of a tree or at the base of a ledge, frequently under the shelter of 

 a projecting root or rock, and almost invariably in beds of oak leaves or of pine 



