596 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



up to the main branches they usually drop or fly to the trunk 

 of a neighboring tree to repeat the performance. 



Their pointed tails are used to brace them as they climb 

 about the trunks. While so seeking they are usually silent, 

 but at the minute when they drop to another trunk they 

 usually utter a " chip " and rarely when some individual 

 becomes excited while hunting food it will utter a " cree-cree- 

 cree-cree-cree " in a rasping tone. In general this bird reminds 

 one of a venerable and pre-occupied college professor searching 

 near-sightedly for some rare and longed for object, and it is 

 the last species in the world to be suspected of having time to 

 express its sentiments in song. The Creeper does, however, 

 have a sweet, plaintive song of three to six notes which is 

 uttered during the breeding season. 



With us when nesting time arrives they are to be sought in 

 the richer, deeper, denser woods. Rich evergreen woods where 

 there are plenty of dead stubs with partly stripped and hang- 

 ing masses of bark adhering are favorite localities, but they 

 are also to be found in mixed growth and in swampy woods 

 where trees with partly stripped bark are frequent. Here 

 behind the partly stripped or loosened bark of dead trees and 

 stubs their nests are placed, generally a dead fir being preferred 

 though trees of other sorts are sometimes selected. Behind 

 the loosened bark a mass of twigs, strips of bark, bits of wood, 

 sphagnum moss, lichens and usnea comprises the nest in which 

 more or less spiders' cocoons are intermingled. Five to eight 

 eggs are laid from as early as May twenty-fifth until as late as 

 June thirtieth, but more usually full sets of eggs may be found 

 about June fifth. The eggs are creamy white, spotted about 

 the larger end, and often wreathed with hazel and reddish 

 brown. An average egg measures 0.57 x 0.46. There is still 

 much to be learned about their home life. 



The food consists of insects, being of the various species 

 gleaned from the crevices and crannies of the bark, such as 

 beetles, thysanurans, spiders, wire worms, grubs and larvae of 



