64 BROWN CREEPER. 



ceedings; for I have almost always observed that he alights on 

 the body near the root of the tree, and directs his course with 

 great nimbleness upwards to the higher branches, sometimes 

 spirally, often in a direct line, moving rapidly and uniformly 

 along, with his tail bent to the tree, and not in the hopping 

 manner of the Woodpecker, whom he far surpasses in dexter- 

 ity of climbing, running along the lower side of the horizontal 

 branches with surprising ease. If any person be near when he 

 alights, he is sure to keep the opposite side of the tree, moving 

 round as he moves, so as to prevent him from getting more than 

 a transient glimpse of him. The best method of outwitting him, 

 if you are alone, is, as soon as he alights and disappears behind 

 the trunk, take your stand behind an adjoining one, and keep 

 a sharp look out twenty or thirty feet up the body of the tree 

 he is upon, for he generally mounts very regularly to a consi- 

 derable height, examining the whole way as he advances. In 

 a minute or two, hearing all still, he will make his appearance 

 on one side or other of the tree, and give you an opportunity 

 of observing him. 



These birds are distributed over the whole United States; 

 but are most numerous in the western and northern states, and 

 particularly so in the depth of the forests, and in tracts of large 

 timbered woods, where they usually breed; visiting the thicker 

 settled parts of the country in fall and winter. They are more 

 abundant in the flat woods of the lower district of New Jersey 

 than in Pennsylvania; and are frequently found among the 

 pines. Though their customary food appears to consist of those 

 insects of the coleopterous class, yet I have frequently found in 

 their stomachs the seeds of the pine tree, and fragments of a 

 species of fungus that vegetates in old wood, with generally a 

 large proportion of gravel. There seems to be scarcely any dif- 

 ference between the colours and markings of the male and fe- 

 male. In the month of March I opened eleven of these birds, 

 among whom were several females, as appeared by the clusters 

 of minute eggs with which their ovaries were filled, and also 

 several well-marked males, and, on the most careful comparison 



