28 THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS 
the trunk till he reaches the lowest branch. 
Then he flings himself off, and flies to the roots 
of another tree, and goes up that in the same 
way. A brown creeper once came into a house, 
and found it so comfortable, and food so plenti- 
ful, and people so kind, that he stayed. He was 
very tame, and his great pleasure was to climb 
up a man’s leg or a woman’s skirt, exactly as he 
climbs a tree trunk, going round and round. 
Quiet and demure as he looks, this little bird 
sometimes plays rather funny pranks. He has 
been seen to whirl around like a top, and again 
to fly up and down close to a tree trunk, appar- 
ently just for fun. He has a sweet little song, 
which we do not often hear, for his voice is not 
strong. 
The brown creeper mother takes a droll place 
for a nest. It is behind the loose bark of an old 
tree. She makes a snug little home under the 
bark roof, and lines it with feathers, and there 
she brings up her three or four little creepers. 
She is as well protected from sun and rain as if 
she had an umbrella, and it is such an odd place 
that it was not for a long time known where her 
cunning little nest was made. 
This bird nests in the Eastern States, in 
northern New York and New England, and in 
California he nests in the mountains, but he goes 
