«ial 
THE AMERICAN CREEPER. 191 
is built in a hollow limb of a tree, in a deserted nest of a 
woodpecker or squirrel, or a hole in a fence-post. Usually 
the locality is chosen in the deep woods, and seldom near 
dwellings or in the orchards. The materials used in the 
construction are soft grasses, feathers, and the bark of 
the cedar and grape-vine. The eggs are usually about six in 
number: their color is a dull-gray; and they are marked, 
thickest near the great end, with small spots of reddish- 
brown, and a few dabs of a darker-color. Mr. Allen speaks 
of a nest being found “in a large elm in Court Square, 
Springfield, about ten feet from the ground, and built behind 
a strip of thick bark that projected in such a way as to leave 
a protected cavity behind it.”” Dimensions of eges average 
about .70 by .50 inch. But one brood is reared in the 
season in New England. 
