THE SIERRA CREEPER. 295 



;ui(-l braids paired ott tur nesting time. Tut, tut I cliiiilren, so eager to taste 

 life's Iiea\ier joys? A nest is chiselled out with infinite labor on the part 

 of these tiny beaks, in the dead pmiion of some pine tree. The cavity is 

 from four to twelve inches in depth, with an entrance a trifle over an inch 

 in diameter. The owners share the taste of the Chickadees, and prepare 

 an elaborate layette of soft \egetable fibers, fur, hair, and feathers, in 

 which the eggs are sometimes quite smothered. 



The parents are as proud as peacocks, and well the\- may be, of their 

 six or eight oval treasures, crystal white, with rufous frecklings, lavish 

 or scant. When the babies are hatched, the mother goes in and out fear- 

 lessly luider yoin- \er_\- nose; and you feel such an interest in the little family 

 that you pluck instinctively — but alas! with what futility — at the fastenings 

 of your purse. 



No. 114. 



SIERRA CREEPER. 



A. O. U. No. 726 d. Certhia familiaris zelotes Osgood. 



Synonym. — California Cref.per (Ridgway). 



Description. — Adults: Above rusty brown, broadly and loosely streaked 

 with ash}' white ; more finely and narrowly streaked on crown ; rumj) bright 

 russet ; wing-quills crossed by two whitish bars, one on both webs near base, 

 the other on outer webs alone : greater coverts, secondaries and tertials tipped 

 with whitish or grayish buft": a narrow superciliary stripe dull whitish or brown- 

 ish gray : underparts sordid white or pale butiy, tinged on sides and flanks with 

 stronger bufi'y. Bill slender, decurved, brownish black above paler below; feet 

 and legs brown; iris dark brown. Length of adult male about 5.50 (139.7); 

 wing 2.50 (63.5); tail 2.39 (60.8): bill .63 (16); tarsus .59 (15). Female a 

 little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size ; singularly variegated in modest colors 

 above; the only brown creeper in its range. Lighter colored than the next. 



Nesting. — Xcst: of twigs, bark-strijjs, moss, plant-down, etc., crowded be- 

 hind a wari)ing scale of bark whether of cedar, pine or fir. Eggs: usually 5 or 6, 

 sometimes 7 or 8, white or creamy white sjicckled and spotted with cinnamon 

 brown or hazel, chiefly in wreath about larger end. Av. Size .61 x .47 (15.5X 

 II.9). 



General Range. — The Cascade-Sierra mountain system from Mt. Whitney 

 north til central liritish Columbia, east to Idaho; displaced by succeeding form 

 on Pacific Coast slope save from Marin County, California, southward. 



Range in Washington. — Resident in the Cascade Mountains, east in coni- 

 ferous timber to Idaho where intergrading with C. f. montana. 



Authorities. — 'I Certhia familiaris iiioiitaiia Johnson ( Roswcll H.), Condor, 

 Vol. VIII.. Jan. 1906, p, 27. 



Specimens. — L'. of W. B. 



