XVIII 



WARBLERS 



BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER ; BLACK AND WHITE 

 CREEPER 



May 12, 1855. Watched a black and white creeper 

 from Bittern Cliff, a very neat and active bird, explor- 

 ing the limbs on all sides and looking three or four 

 ways almost at once for insects. Now and then it raises 

 its head a little, opens its bill, and, without closing it, 

 utters its faint seeser seeser seeser. 



May 30, 1857. In the midst of the shower, though 

 it was not raining very hard, a black and white creeper 

 came and inspected the limbs of a tree before my rock, 

 in his usual zigzag, prying way, head downward often, 

 and when it thundered loudest, heeded it not. Birds ap- 

 pear to be but little incommoded by the rain. Yet they 

 do not often sing in it. 



May 16, 1860. Near Peter's I see a small creeper 

 hopping along the branches of the oaks and pines, ever 

 turning this way and that as it hops, making various angles 

 with the bough ; 

 then flies across 

 to another bough, or to the base of another tree, and 

 traces that up, zigzag and prying into the crevices. Think 

 how thoroughly the trees are thus explored by various 

 birds ! You can hardly sit near one for five minutes now, 

 but either a woodpecker or creeper comes and examines 



