Vol. XXII 

 1905 



Kennard and McKechnie, Brown Creeper. I 93 



writes us of his having found at Hamilton, Mass., on May 11, 

 1904, a pair of these birds "building a nest behind the loose bark 

 of a pitch pine stub about ten feet from the ground." x It was 

 situated in "mixed woods of white pine and white oak with a few 

 white birch and pitch pines on the border of a red maple swamp." 

 He was unable to look into the nest without disturbing it, but 

 knows that they later hatched and reared their brood. 



Summing up the evidence here presented, it seems to us that 

 this species may have been in the past overlooked. The observers 

 now are more numerous than heretofore, and accordingly are able 

 to cover much greater territory. The birds themselves are incon- 

 spicuous and apparently very shy when building their nests or 

 laying their eggs; and the breeding places in this vicinity, at 

 least, that they seem best to like, leaving out of consideration 

 such an unusual site as that recorded by Dr. Allen, appear to be 

 in or about those cool wild swamps, which, in the breeding sea- 

 son are apt to be avoided by self-respecting mankind. Maple 

 and cedar swamps, or dark pine or hemlock groves, with thick- 

 ets and tangles of a more or less boreal flora, and preferably 

 those in which dead trees and stubs may be found, to which the 

 loose bark is still clinging. 



Then again, one must get into the woods early in hunting for 

 these birds, in order properly to locate them, perhaps while the 

 ice is still in the swamps and the water deep. If this is not done 

 and the leaves burst forth before the birds are found, even though 

 when incubating they appear to be less shy, the task of finding 

 their nest is much more difficult. They seem to breed earlier 

 hereabouts than we had been led to suppose, and we believe that 

 some, at least, of these birds that one sees in the latter part of 

 April may be residents and not migrants as heretofore supposed. 



Finally, after duly weighing the above evidence it seems to us 

 that the American Brown Creeper (Certhia fami/iaris americana) 

 may be taken from the list of birds whose breeding in eastern 

 Massachusetts is purely accidental, and placed rather in a list of 

 those birds, which, though perhaps rare, may be found breeding 

 locally, but not uncommonly in suitable localities. 



1 See ' The Birds of Essex County, Mass.,' by Dr. Chas. W. Townsend. 



