622 HISTORY OF THE 



Certhia familiaris americana (BOXAP.). 



BROWN CREEPER. 

 PLATE XXXIV. 



Winter sojourner; common in the eastern portion of the State; 

 rare westward. Leave the last of March to first of April; begin 

 to return in October. 



B. 275. R. 55. C. 62. G. 21, 317. U. 726. 



HABITAT. Temperate eastern North America; west to the 

 Great Plains (represented westward in the Rocky Mountain re- 

 gion by C. familiaris montana, and on the Pacific side by C. 

 familiaris occidentalis); breeds from the northern United States 

 northward; winters southward into the Gulf States. 



SP. CHAR. "Bill about the length of the head. Above, dark brown, with a 

 slightly rufous shade, each feather streaked centrally, but not abruptly, with 

 whitish; rump rusty. Beneath, almost silky white; the under tail coverts with 

 a faint rusty tinge. A white streak over the eye; the ear coverts streaked with 

 whitish. Tail feathers brown centrally, the edges paler yellowish brown. 

 Wings with a transverse bar of pale reddish white across both webs. Young: 

 Resembling the adult, but streaks above indistinct, and the feathers there tipped 

 indistinctly with blackish; the rufous restricted to the upper tail coverts. Breast 

 and jugulum with very minute blackish wavings of indistinct bars." 



Stretch of 

 Length. wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 5.60 7.85 2.55 2.60 .58 .62 



Female 5.25 7.50 2.40 2.35 .55 .60 



Iris brown; bill dark brown, with base of under flesh color; 

 legs and feet reddish brown; claws a shade darker. 



The natural haunts of these peculiar birds are within the deep 

 woods, but during migration are occasionally met with in our 

 shade trees, orchards, scattering trees upon the prairies and that 

 fringe the streams far out upon the plains. They are not soci- 

 able birds, so far as relates to their own kin, and lead a rather 

 isolated, solitary life, except during the mated season, and then 

 are only in pairs; but they are often found associating with the 

 Nuthatches and Titmice; not, I think, from choice, but because 

 the insect life is the most abundant. In their search for the 

 eggs and larva and small forms of life hidden in the interstices 

 of the bark, they climb the trees in a jerky manner, and usually 

 spiral-like; sometimes but a short distance, at others nearly to 

 the top, flying in either case and alighting at the foot of another 



