PASSERINE. TENUIROSTRES. 281 



habits as the preceding race, the Creepers appear to 

 possess the faculty of climbing in still greater per- 

 fection, even to a degree which seems to set the 

 laws of gravitation at defiance. Speaking of a North 

 American species which he considers identical with 

 our little Brown Creeper (C. Familiar is), Wilson says, 

 " The Brown Creeper is an extremely active and 

 restless little bird. In winter it associates with the 

 small spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Titmouse, &c. ; 

 and often follows in their rear, gleaning up those in- 

 sects which their more powerful bills had alarmed 

 and exposed ; for its own slender incurvated bill 

 seems unequal to the task of penetrating into even 

 the decayed wood ; though it may into holes, and 

 behind scales of the bark. As the party advances 

 through the woods from tree to tree, our little gleaner 

 seems to observe a good deal of regularity in his 

 proceedings ; for I have almost always observed, that 

 he alights on the body near the root of the tree, and 

 directs his course, with great nimbleness, upwards to 

 the higher branches, sometimes spirally, often in a 

 direct line, moving rapidly and uniformly along, with 

 his tail bent to the tree, and not in the hopping 

 manner of the Woodpecker, whom he far surpasses 

 in dexterity of climbing, running along the lower 

 side of the horizontal branches with surprising ease. 

 If any person be near when he alights, he is sure to 

 keep the opposite side of the tree, moving round as 

 he moves, so as to prevent him from getting more 

 than a transient glimpse of him. The best method 

 of outwitting him if you are alone, is, as soon as he 



