1914 J Tyler, Brown Creeper in Massachusetts. 59 



around them, — her back to the earth. When perched, her tail 

 hung straight downward, Hke a Phoebe's or a Brown Thrasher's 

 when he sings. She broke off the twigs by tugging at them while 

 perched or while fluttering in the air. Twice one of the pair took 

 a bit of material from that which protruded from the base of the 

 nest and carried it inside the nest cavity. Soon after her trips to 

 the pine the bird disappeared for nineteen minutes. On her return, 

 she brought a cocoon. 



The use of both the fern down and the webbing is, I believe, 

 to bind the twigs together and to hold the nest to the bark, against 

 which it rests. In the first nest site, if it had not been for this 

 adhesion, the nest would have fallen to the ground of its own weight, 

 for its base was unsupported." 



At 9 A. M., June 2, we found one of the birds at nest No. 3. 

 Half an hour later, both birds were at the second nest (the nest 

 which on June 1 we thought had been deserted). The female flew 

 to the nest with a bit of bark (2| X \ inches) then pulled from the 

 protruding base of the nest a piece of fuzz and took it into the 

 cavity. Five minutes later she (or her mate) crept again to the 

 base and pulled off a bit of bark which she carried within. This 

 economical habit of using material twice (first for the foundation 

 and later for building the nest proper) is apparently a common 

 practice. We saw it again and again. 



On June 5, 8-8:30 a. m. I saw or heard nothing of the birds. 



June 9, 7.30-8.50 a. m. The female entered nest No. 3 at 7.35. 

 The male remained in the vicinity and sang frequently, at 7.45, 

 8.15, and 8.48. He called the female from the nest and fed her, 

 and each time she returned at once to the nest where "she is evi- 

 dently incubating." 



On the following morning (June 10) there were two eggs in the 

 nest No. 3. The female bird came to the nest and it seemed e\d- 

 dent that she was laying a second set of eggs. Such was not the 

 case, however. During the next three days the two birds busied 

 themselves in continuing to build nest No. 2 and were never or 

 rarely seen about the nest which contained the eggs. No more eggs 

 were layed in this nest and our conclusion was that it had been made 

 merely to receive the two eggs, probably the remnant of the first set. 



From June 13, the Creepers were followed by Mr. George Nelson 



