DESCRIPTIONS OF OUR NATIVE BIRDS. 13 



BROWN TREE CREEPER. 

 (Climacteris scandens.) 



OTHER SPECIES ' Red-browed Tree Creeper {Climacteris erythrofs). 

 IN < Rufous Tree Creeper [Climacteris rufa). 



SOUTH AUSTRALIA. ( White-throated Tree Creeper (CTmaciem ptc^^w^a). 



Size. — In size this little bird resembles the starling. 



Plumage. — The plumage is decidedly brown. The top and back of the head are 

 dark brown in color, the side of the head is a russet brown, which gradu- 

 ally merges into the dark spotted fawn color of the throat. The back and 

 tail feathers are russet or rusty colored, the latter being crossed with a 

 dark-brown bar. The wings, which are dark brown, are crossed with a 

 bar of lighter shade. The breast is light brown and striped from the 

 front backward with dull white markings running down the centre of 

 each feather. 



Habftat. — The habitat of the brown tree creeper is the open wooded country, where 

 it may be seen ranging the trunks of trees. It climbs forward or back- 

 ward, ever taking a spiral course about the tree trunk. 



Food. — Its food consists chiefly of bark life — insects that live under the loose, dry, 

 clinging bark. 



Nest. — The nest is constructed of fine fibrous bark, and lined with some soft 

 material, such as hair from animals. The position usually selected for 

 the nest is a hollow in a branch. 



Eggs. — The eggs, which number two, measure about xzin. x fin., and are of a reddish 

 color, spotted with brown, and bluish-grey markings, the latter appearing 

 below the surface. 



