CHAPTER SEVEN 



THE BROWN CREEPER AND THE WRENS 



THE brown creepers and the wrens show a resemblance 

 in size and color as well as in the shape of the bill and 

 wings, but they differ enough to be placed in different 

 families. Of the creeper family only one species, the 

 brown creeper, is found throughout the United States 

 and southern Canada. About 30 species of wrens live 

 in the Old World and more than 200 species in America, 

 14 of them in the United States and Canada. They are 

 small, plain-colored birds with short, rounded wings and 

 slender bills adapted for eating insects. 



The brown creeper. The name " brown creeper " 

 is almost enough to enable you to recognize this bird. 

 It is a very small bird (5-3- inches in length), with long 

 and pointed tail feathers. If you see such a bird alight 

 on the trunk of a tree near the ground and creep up to 

 where the trunk divides into branches and then, after a 

 little, fly to the base of another tree trunk to repeat the 

 operation, you may be sure it is a brown creeper. Does 

 it creep straight up a trunk ? If not, how should you de- 

 scribe its motion ? Is there any advantage in its pointed 

 tail feathers ? If you are able to get a near view of the 

 beak, you will see that it is curved, slender, and finely 

 pointed. For what is such a beak adapted? Its claws 

 are long, much curved, and sharp. For what are they 

 adapted ? 



Have you seen brown creepers at all seasons ? If not, 

 when ? Are they useful or harmful to the trees ? 



The house wren. The house wren is common in the 

 woods and orchards as well as about buildings. It is 



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