250 THE BROWN CREEPER. 
No. 109. 
BROWN CREEPER. 
A. O. U. No, 726. Certhia familiaris americanus (Bonap.). 
Description.— Adults: Above, dark brown, broadly and loosely streaked 
with ashy white; more finely and narrowly streaked on crown; rump bright cinna- 
mon; 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 
white; tail fuscous,—slightly decurved, open W-shaped at end, of elastic, acumi- 
nate feathers; below, soiled white, sometimes tinged with tawny on flanks and 
crissum; bill slender, decurved. Length, 5.00-5.75 (127.-146.1) ; average of five 
Columbus specimens: wing 2.54 (64.5) ; tail 2.22 (56.4) ; bill .56 (14.2). Female 
averages a little smaller than male. 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; singularly variegated in modest colors 
above; the only brown creeper. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest, of twigs, bark-strips, moss, 
etc., crowded behind a warping scale of bark. Eggs, 5-8, white or creamy-white, 
speckled and spotted with cinnamon-brown or hazel, chiefly in wreath about larger 
end. Average size, .61 x .47 (15.5 XII.9). 
General Range.—Eastern North America, breeding from the northern and 
more elevated parts of the United States northward, and casually further south; 
migrating southward in winter. 
Range in Ohio.—Common fall and spring migrant. Winter resident in cen- 
and southern portions; found less commonly, or casually, in northern Ohio in 
winter. 
DEAR, patient, plodding mortal! How we wish it were in our power 
to relieve him, if but for an hour, of the endless monotony of tree-climb- 
ing! But, no; he has scarcely reached the main branches of one tree-trunk 
when he lets go “like a bit of loosened bark,” and brings up punctually at 
the base of another. With now and then a plaintive chip which is little bet- 
ter than a sigh, he hitches along the bark, winding spirally up the tree, 
and pausing at the end of every jerk to inspect the crevices for insects and 
their larve. Little attention is paid to man’s presence and, indeed, the 
bird seems scarcely to indulge a thought above his task. Work, work, work, 
—while Titmouse is plotting mischief, and Chickadee is turning somersaults, 
this unimaginative clerk is adding up his endless columns and telling off the 
digits in a wiry, piping voice. 
The Creeper knows that he is a near-sighted fellow, but he is sharp enough 
to depend on the wits of others. When the winter troop is ranging freely 
he follows close and pipes shrilly, “Wait for me, wait for me,” if he thinks 
the bigger children are trying to give him the slip. I have watched a pair 
of them tagging a Nuthatch about from tree to tree as faithfully as a brace 
of poodles. 
