68 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
(da). The only note of the Red-bellied Nuthatch is an un- 
musical sound, like the word ‘‘ank,” which, says Mr. Maynard, 
is repeated more deliberately and less querulously in the breed- 
ing-season than at other times; a fact, which I also have 
‘noticed. It is, however, varied considerably in pitch at all 
times of the year. 
§6. Certhiide. Creepers. (See § 4.) 
I. CERTHIA 
(A) Famiiaris.!% Brown Creeper. 
(In Eastern Massachusetts very rare in summer, but common 
in winter.) 
(a). About 53 inches long. Bill slender and decurved ; tail- 
feathers rigid and acuminate (as in other Certhiine). Below, 
white. Tail unmarked. Other upper parts curiously and finely 
marked with several browns and whitish. 
(6). Wilson says that ‘¢‘ the Brown Creeper builds his nest 
in the hollow trunk or branch of a tree, where the tree has 
been shivered, or a limb broken off, or where squirrels or 
Woodpeckers have wrought out an entrance, for nature has not 
provided him with the means of excavating one for himself.” 
Mr. Gregg (in a Catalogue of the Birds of Chemung County, 
New York) says that ‘the nest of this species is built of dry 
twigs attached to the sides of some perpendicular object ;” and 
that he ‘‘ discovered one on the attic of a deserted log house ; 
the nest rested upon the inner projection of the gable clap- 
board, and was cemented together with a gummy or gelatinous 
substance.” The only nest that I have found in the neighbor- 
hood of Boston was a few feet from the ground, placed in the 
cavity formed by the rending of a tree by lightning. The 
eggs, which were fresh on the twentieth day of May, were 
erayish-white, speckled with reddish-brown, chiefly at the _ 
larger end, and measured about ‘60°50 of an inch. A nest, 
containing young, found in a New Hampshire forest, was much 
like one found ‘‘in a large elm in Court Square, Springfield, 
17 Once called Americana and ‘“* American Creeper.” 
