178 BROWN CREEPER. 
tomary scolding cack; his song, a bubbling, trickling 
tinkle that can not be-called musical, but to my mind is 
indescribably attractive. It is often sung in the air, and 
in marshes where Wrens are abundant bird after bird 
may be seen springing a few feet above the reeds, sing- — 
ing his song, and then dropping back again. 
CREEPERS. (FAMILY CERTHIID.) . 
Of the twelve known members of this family, the 
Brown Creeper. is the only one inhabiting the New 
. World. It is a northern bird, breed- 
rown Creeper, 
Certhia familiaris ing at sea level only from Maine north- 
_ americana. ward, but extending southward in the 
a Alleghanies to North Carolina. Sey- 
eral western races are found in the Rocky Mountain 
region and Sierra Madres. Our eastern bird migrates — 
southward late in September, and from that date until 
April it may be found from Massachusetts to Florida. 
The Creeper, like a Woodpecker, never climbs head 
downward, but, using his stiff, pointed tail-feathers (see 
Fig. 30) as a prop, winds rapidly up the trunks of trees 
in his apparently never-ending search for insects’ eggs 
and larvee hidden in crevices in the bark. If the Wrens 
are the most active birds, the Creeper is the most dili- 
gent. Except when it was stopping to secure some tid- 
bit, I can not remember seeing a Creeper resting. He 
usually begins at the base of a tree and climbs in a seri- 
ous, intent way for a certain distance, and then, without 
a moment's pause, drops down to the bottom of the next 
tree and continues his search. 
The Creeper’s only notes while with us are a thin, 
fine squeak; but Mr. Brewster tells us that during the 
nesting season he has an exquisitely tender song of four 
notes. ; 
