176 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



my glass, and taking liberties with their mother 

 tongue. Their song resembled that of the song 

 sparrow in arrangement of note, but was richer, 

 and had a plaintive cast. 



LIX. 



BROWN CREEPER. 



AT last we have a bird to put into our empty 

 pigeon-hole, No. 2, the "creepers." Like the 

 "thrashers and wrens" in No. 10, his prevailing 

 color is brown, and he has a long slender bill, 

 while he resembles the nuthatch his neighbor 

 in No. 12 in habits. In his way, however, the 

 brown creeper is a unique bird. He is so nearly 

 the color of the brown bark of the trees you 

 often overlook him as he goes rocking up their 

 sides. When pecking at the bark he looks even 

 more convex than the yellow hammer ; for besides 

 the curve given by his tail as he braces himself 

 by it, and the continuing curve of his back as he 

 bends forward, his bill is long and curved, thus 

 completing the arc. 



He is a systematic workman, going over his 

 ground in a painstaking fashion, sometimes even 

 flitting back a few feet to examine a piece of moss 

 over again. He usually begins at the bottom of 

 a tree and works up, sometimes circling, at others 

 flitting up, and again rocking straight up the 



