1914 J Tyler, Brown Creeper in Massachusetts. 53 



trance. She must be on the side of the nest. Again at 8:15, the 

 male carries food to the nest and goes out of sight beneath the bark. 



"Sometimes the Creepers climb high in a tree to where the 

 branches are so small that, in ascending, the birds almost grasp 

 them in their claws. They do not (or I have not yet seen them) 

 perch crosswise on the little twigs. When crawling out a hori- 

 zontal limb, they often wind about it so that the back faces the 

 ground. Often, too, a bird sits perfectly motionless for a minute 

 or two, even with food in its bill." 



When the two birds were side by side, it was apparent that 

 the male was slightly the darker, but this difference in color was 

 not sufficiently marked to serve as an identification when only one 

 bird was in sight. 



" May 30. This morning Mr. Walter Faxon found the nest and 

 the slab of bark on the ground at the foot of the nest tree. All the 

 eggs were broken. The birds were nowhere to be seen. The 

 heavy wind of last night was, without doubt, responsible for the 

 catastrophe." 



In the afternoon of May 18, 1913, Mr. Faxon discovered the nest 

 of a pair of Brown Creepers in Concord, Mass. 



"This nest is twelve feet from the ground behind the loosened 

 bark of a dead white oak tree, the trunk of which, three feet up, 

 measures 54 inches. The flake of bark which shelters the nest is 

 attached at the top and on one side and hangs closely to the trunk. 

 A handful of material (sticks, etc., the base of the nest) protrudes 

 from the free lower edge. A foot above this is a tiny hole — no 

 bigger than a mouse's hole — through which the bird crawls down 

 to the nest. Mr. Faxon and I spent an hour (May 19) about 

 the nest. Once a bird came out and, after feeding for a minute 

 or two from the surrounding tree trunks, moved off. Fifteen 

 minutes later, we heard her notes as she approached. She flew 

 to the nest tree, alighted below the nest, crawled up to the hole, 

 turned head downward with her back to the trunk and disappeared. 

 The nest tree stands on high land in an open grove of white pine 

 and oak near the shore of a small pond. Presumably the female 

 bird is incubating." 



From the report of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Robbins of Onset, Mass., 

 both Creepers were feeding young on May 21. 



