THE BLACK AND WHITE CREEPER. 201 
little moss, and lined with finer blades of the former and a 
few long hairs. The eggs are four or five in number, of 
a sullied-white color, and covered with small brown spots, 
collected chiefly towards the larger end.” 
Sub-Family Syuvicotinz.— The Wood-warblers. 
MNIOTILTA, Viertuot. 
Mniotilta, Vrerituot, Analyse, 1816 (Agassiz). 
General form sylvicoline; bill rather long, compressed, shorter than the head, 
with very short rictal bristles and a shallow notch; wings considerably longer than 
the tail, which is slightly rounded; first quill shorter than second and third; tarsi 
rather short; toes long, middle one equal to the tarsus; hind toe nearly as long, the 
claw considerably shorter than its digit. Color white streaked with black. 
This genus difiers from other Sylvicolines in the elongation of the toes, especially 
the hinder one, by means of which the species is enabled to move up and down the 
trunks of trees, like the true Creepers. But one species is recognized as North 
American, although Nuttall describes a second. 
MNIOTILTA VARIA. — Vieillot. 
The Black and White Creeper. 
Motacilla varia, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 333. 
Mniotilta varia, Vieillot. Analyse (1016). b., Galerie Ois., I. (1834) 276. Aud. 
Syn. (1839), 71. Jb. Birds Am., II. (1841) 105. 
Sylvia varia, Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 81. Nutt. Man., I. (1882) 384. 
Certhia maculata, Wilson. Am. Orn., III. (1811) 22. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Bill with the upper mandible considerably decurved, the lower straight; general 
color of the male black, the feathers broadly edged with white; the head all round 
black, with a median stripe in the crown and neck above, a superciliary and a max- 
illary one of white; middle of belly, two conspicuous bands on the wings, outer 
edges of tertials and inner of all the wing and tail feathers, and a spot on the inner 
webs of the outer two tail feathers, white; rump and upper tail coverts black, 
edged externally with white; female similar; the under parts white, obsoletely 
streaked with black on the sides and under tail coverts. 
Length, five inches; wing, two and eighty-five one-hundredths inches; tail, two 
and twenty-five one-hundredths inches. 
Hab. — Eastern North America to Missouri River, south to Guatemala. 
This is a rather common summer inhabitant of all New 
England. It arrives from the South before the 20th of 
