Vv 
THE CREEPER FAMILY 
(Certhiide )} 
Tus is a family of birds who creep; that is, 
they appear not to hop up a tree trunk like a 
woodpecker, or walk up like a nuthatch, but 
they hug close to the bark with claws and tail, 
and seem really to creep. 
The one member of the family in this country 
is called the Brown Creeper. He is a little 
fellow in streaks and stripes of brown, and he 
looks so much like the tree trunks that one can 
hardly see him. He has a slender, curved bill, 
just the thing to poke into cracks in the bark, 
and pull out the insects and eggs hidden there. 
His tail feathers are curious. They have sharp 
points on the ends, so that he can press them 
against the bark, and help support himself. 
The creeper’s way of getting up a trunk is to 
begin near the ground, and go round and round 
1 See Appendix, 4. 
