206 Brewster on the American Broivn Creeper. 



tore off shreds of the decomposing bark, until her bill was filled, 

 then, swinging downward in the usual characteristic manner, she 

 alighted against the stem of the nesting-tree just below the hole, and, 

 glancing about for a moment to be sure that no danger was near, 

 glided nimbly upward, and with wonderful quickness disappeared 

 under the edge of the sheltering bark. A few moments would then 

 elapse, when the silence was broken onlj' by the rasping cheep, cheep 

 of the wood-borers in the rotting stubs around, or the hissing of 

 a brood of Woodpeckers from their hole in the top of a tall dead 

 ash a few yards away ; then she would suddenly appear again, flying 

 directly from the nest to renew her search at the base of an adjoin- 

 ing tree. On these trips she w^as invariably accompanied by the 

 male, who usually preceded her up the trunk, and upon her return 

 to the nest, clung to the bark near at hand. His song was almost 

 incessant, though the day was dark and stormy, and most of the 

 wood birds utterly silent. But save by his cheering notes he appar- 

 ently rendered no assistance ; indeed, on more than one occasion I 

 caught him in the act of surreptitiously swallowing a grub which he 

 had drawn from its concealment while his patient partner's back was 

 turned. If not an unselfish husband, he is, however, at least an 

 attentive one. After the cares of incubation have begun, he is gen- 

 erally to be found in the immediate vicinity of the nesting-tree, 

 extending his leisurely rambles through the surrounding woods, 

 but rarely straying far away from the spot. He is a frequent but 

 scarcely a persistent singer, and his voice, though one of the sweetest 

 that ever rises in the depths of the Northern forests, is never a very 

 conspicuous sound in the woodlands where he makes his home. This 

 is due to the fact that his song is short and by no means powerful, 

 but its tones are so exquisitely pure and tender that I have never 

 heard it without a desire to linger in the vicinity until it had been 

 many times repeated. It consists of a bar of four notes, the first 

 of moderate pitch, the second lower and less emphatic, the third 

 rising again, and the last abruptly falling, but dying away in an in- 

 describably plaintive cadence, like the soft sigh of the wind among 

 pine boughs. I can compare it to no other bird voice that I have 

 ever heard. In the pitch and succession of the notes it somewhat 

 resembles the song of the Carolina Titmouse (Parus carolinends), 

 but the tone is infinitely purer and sweeter. Like the wonderful 

 melody of the Winter Wren, it is in perfect keeping with the myste- 

 rious gloom of the woods ; a wild, clear voice that one feels would 



