XX 



CREEPERS, NUTHATCHES, TITS, AND KINGLETS 



BROWN CREEPER 



Nov. 26, 1859. I see here to-day one brown creeper 

 busily inspecting the pitch pines. It begins at the base, 

 and creeps rapidly upward by starts, adhering close to 

 the bark and shifting a little from side to side often till 

 near the top, then suddenly darts off downward to the 

 base of another tree, where it repeats the same course. 

 This has no black cockade, like the nuthatch. 



[/See also under General and Miscellaneous, pp. 416, 

 422.] 



WHITE-BELLIED NUTHATCH 



April 6, 1856. I went to the oaks. Heard there a 

 nuthatch's faint vibrating tut-tut, somewhat even like 

 croaking of frogs, as it made its way up the oak bark 

 and turned head down to peck. Anon it answered its 

 mate with a gnah gnah. 



Dec. 5, 1856. As I walk along the side of the Hill, 

 a pair of nuthatches flit by toward a walnut,^ Ajing 

 low in midcourse and then ascending to the tree. I 

 hear one's faint tut tut or gnah, gnah — no doubt heard a 

 good way by its mate now flown into the next tree — 

 as it is ascending the trunk or branch of a walnut in a 

 zigzag manner, hitching along, prying into the crevices 



^ [Thoreau was accustomed to use the name walnut for the various 

 species of hickory.] 



