GENUS 29. CERTHIA. CREEPER. 

 SPECIES 1. C. FAMILMRIS. 



BROWN CREEPER. 

 [Plate VIII. Fig. 1. Male.] 



Little Brown variegated Creeper, BARTRAM, 89. PEALE'S Mu- 

 seum, JVo. 2434.* 



THIS bird agrees so nearly with the common European Creeper 

 (Certhia familiaris), that I have little doubt of their being 

 one and the same species. I have examined, at different times, 

 great numbers of these birds, and have endeavoured to make a 

 correct drawing of the male, that Europeans and others may 

 judge for themselves; and the excellent artist to whom the plate 

 was entrusted has done his part so well in the engraving, as to 

 render the figure a perfect resemblance of the living original. 



The Brown Creeper is an extremely active and restless little 

 bird. In winter it associates with the small Spotted Woodpecker, 

 Nuthatch, Titmouse, &c. and often follows in their rear, glean- 

 ing up those insects which their more powerful bills had alar- 

 med and exposed ; for its own slender incurvated bill seems un- 

 equal to the task of penetrating into even the decayed wood 

 though it may into holes and behind scales of the bark. Of the 

 Titmouse there are generally present the individuals of a whole 

 family, and seldom more than one or two of the others. As the 

 party advances through the woods, from tree to tree, our little 

 gleaner seems to observe a good deal of regularity in his pro- 



* We add the following synonymes: Certhia familiaris, LINU. Sysl. ed. 10, 

 vol. 1, 118. GKEL. Syst. 1, 469 LATH. /ncl. Orn. 280. Le Grimpereau, Burr. 

 PL Enl 681. 



