1914 J Tyler, Brown Creeper in Massachusetts. 55 



Totals 17 7 21 45 



9 24 visits — removes excrement 5 times. 

 cT 21 visits — removes excrement 4 times. 



During the first half hour, the male sang frequently. Evidently 

 this interfered with his feeding the young. During the second 

 period both parents were absent for ten minutes. Once in the hour 

 and a half, the male, entering below, left by the upper hole. He 

 was disturbed by the coming of the female, I think, although she 

 went away without entering. 



As the Creepers hunted about for food, and as they flew to the 

 nest, they uttered continually both from a perch and while in the 

 air, their single high sibilant call, "ts," a note which suggests the 

 slightest chip-note of Regulus satrapa. Often too they give the 

 long, tremulous " Ziiit," but only, I believe, when perched. When 

 bringing food to the nest tree, the female alighted above the nest 

 (6-10 feet) and descended to it by successive flights in loops; the 

 male generally alighted below the nest and crept upward. When- 

 ever the parents entered the nest, the young birds reared and 1 

 could see them plainly through the lower hole which had been en- 

 larged by the frequent passage of the male bird. When they opened 

 their mouths, the pale yellow lining shone out clearly in the dim 

 light. The female parent in feeding stood head downward above 

 the nest in the cavity behind the bark. Although more conveni- 

 ent, it would seem, to leave by the lower crevice (her head was 

 almost opposite this entrance) she invariably turned and climbed 

 out the hole by which she had entered. The male parent often 

 took the same position, but in ten of his twentj'-one visits to the 

 nest he did not go behind the bark, — he merely reached in through 

 the lower entrance. 



