CEBTHUD.E THE CREEPERS. 87 



Certhia rufa BABTB. Trav. Fla. 1791. 289 bis (nomen nudum). COUBS, Pr. Phil. Be 

 1875. 347. 



CertMa familiaris rufa Rroow. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 56. 



Certhia americana BONAP. Comp. List, 1838. 11. NUTT. Man. i, 2d ed. 1840, 701. BATED, B. 

 N. Am. 1858, 372; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 275; Beview. 1864, 89. 



Certhia familiaris B. B. & B. Hist. N. Am. B. i, 1874, 125. pi. 8, fig. 11. 



HAB. Northern and eastern North America, breeding from northern border of United 

 States northward. (Represented In the Rocky Mountain region by the grayer race mow- 

 tana, and along the Pacific coast by the rusty colored occidentalism 



"Sp. CHAB. Bill about the length of the head. Above dark brown, with a slightly 

 rufous shade, each feather streaked centrally, but not abruptly, with whitish; rump 

 rusty. Beneath almost silky white; the under tail-coverts with a faint rusty tinge. A 

 white streak over the eye; the ear-coverts streaked with whitish. Tail feathers brown 

 centrally, the edges paler yellowish-brown. Wings with a transverse bar of pale reddish 

 white across both webs. Length. 5.50; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.90. 



"Young. Resembling the adult, but streaks above indistinct, and the feathers there 

 tipped indistinctly with blackish; the rufous restricted to the upper tail-coverts. Breast 

 and jugulum with very minute blackish wavings or indistinct bars." (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



This very inconspicuous little bird is probably known to few 

 besides the special student of ornithology and the collector. He is 

 a tiny brown- streaked fellow, who may occasionally be seen during 

 the colder parts of the year, nimbly creeping up the trunks of trees, 

 ascending in more or less of a spiral, and when the first limbs are 

 reached flying to the foot of another tree and repeating the per- 

 formance. If too closely approached he manages to keep on the 

 side opposite the observer, and should the latter attempt to go around 

 he moves also keeping the tree always between. 



The nest is normally placed behind loose plates of semi-detached 

 bark, on the trunk of a tree, and is composed chiefly of the fine 

 inner bark of trees. It is so situated that the overhanging bark 

 forms a shelter from the rain, and the loose and irregular char- 

 acter of the mass of strips and fibers in which the small nest is 

 hollowed out, so effectually conceals it from the hungry or curious 

 eye, that it has rarely been seen. 



