CREEPERS. 



Alleghanies to North Carolina. It winters as far south as 

 the Gulf coast. 



The Brown Creeper has no song in the strict sense of the 

 word except it be the few plaintive notes which it utters in 

 the nesting season; these are so thin in tone and so indeter- 

 minate in pitch that they not infrequently escape notice 

 altogether, or else the impression produced is of some dis- 

 tant warbler's desultory song. The notes are properly 

 represented (adding Mr. Torrey's syllabic form to my 

 own) thus: 



See, &eeme,6eemc,&Q^ 

 ''Sue, Jtofry, Suty,* *' 



The final plaintive note Mr. William Brewster likens to 

 the "soft sighing of the wind among the pine boughs." 

 Musically expressed this note drags down with a r alien- 

 tando as most of the notes of the Meadow Lark do. The 

 commoner call of the bird is a short, unobtrusive tsip 

 which an attentive ear will often hear in the rugged spruces 

 which flank the Adirondack and White Mountains, or 

 among the trees which border the streets of our more 

 northern villages. 



Family Paridce. NUTHATCHES AND Trre. 



In this family are included two subfamilies, the Sit- 

 tince, Nuthatches, and the Parince, Titmouse and Chicka- 

 dees. The Nuthatches are climbing birds which creep 

 down as well as up, and unlike the Woodpeckers do not 

 use their tails as supports. These birds as well as the 

 Chickadees have a habit of wedging seeds or nuts in the 

 crevices of bark and cracking the shells thus securely 

 held, with repeated pecks of their bills. The Nuthatches 

 are entirely unmusical; but the Black-capped Chickadee 

 has an extremely sweet and melodious though simple 

 wbiatle. 



2*5 



