Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 43 



with their companions, the Tufted Tits and Chickadees, 

 the most prominent wooers in early spring, announcing 

 their intentions in no mistakable manner, and notifying 

 others of their kind by drumming to keep out of their 

 chosen domain. 



An unique visitor of our wintry woods is the Brown 

 Creeper. It is invariably found hugging the trunks of 

 trees and easily overlooked, because of its colors of 

 various shades of brown and white. It is the busiest lit- 

 tle body in the woods, always on the move, diligently fol- 

 lowing its useful occupation of gleaning insects and their 

 eggs from cracks in the bark, holding to its support by its 

 sharp claws and rigid tail feathers. On seeing an ob- 

 server it goes to the opposite side of the tree, but by wait- 

 ing and watching we may get a glimpse of it again higher 

 up on the tree. It starts usually near the base of a tree 

 and ascends by little jerks in a spiral way, uttering an 

 occasional soft chirp, leaving the tree before ascending 

 very high in order to begin the ascent at the base of 

 another tree. It is a conscientious worker, but its labor 

 becomes monotonous, because it is an endless repetition 

 without variation. When you have watched it a few min- 

 utes you have seen it a year, and seeing one is seeing a 

 thousand. To us the species is of particular interest, be- 

 cause Missouri is the only state in which it has been 

 found breeding south of the coniferous forests of the 

 North, except in mountainous regions. Nests have been 

 found in the Bald Cypress swamps of the Southeast and 

 on dead elm trees in the Duckpond in St. Louis County. 

 The nests are usually built behind the loose bark of de- 

 caying trees, but with the disappearance of these oppor- 

 tunities for nesting sites our Creepers will be forced to 

 do as the Old World cousins have been doing for a long 

 time and put up with any kinds of holes in trees and even 

 crevices on buildings in the woods. 



One of the birds most difficult to find is the Winter 

 Wren. It has to be looked for chiefly along creeks in the 



