Brown Creeper 63 



six inches deep and filling the space between the bark and the tree trunk. 

 The lowermost twigs were stretched across the space and acted as braces for 

 the material placed above them. On this foundation was built a tiny cup of fine 

 dried grass, well matted together, lined with very fine fibers, and fine strips of 

 inner bark as the shreds from dead cedars. This nest was placed in a dead 

 maple tree three feet above the water in a very wet part of the swamp, and on 

 May 3, 1 9 13, contained five eggs, white, sparsely specked with light brown and 

 amber. Sometimes the bird will lay six or seven in a nest. 



"The female of those pairs that I have watched, does the nest-building and 

 is accompanied by the male while gathering and arranging material. Both birds 

 feed the young and are very tame and unsuspicious. One pair I found in 

 northern New Brunswick unconcernedly visited the nest while observed from a 

 distance of ten or twelve feet. 



"Nesting in the latitude of New York City is early and the young hatch in 

 late May. When newly out of the egg they are tiny creatures with a covering of 

 blackish natal down. When grown and out of the nest they appear to stay with 

 the old birds for a time, and I have seen whole families in late June creeping 

 about the tree trunks in their characteristic way." 



The Brown Creeper breeds chiefly in Canada as far West as Manitoba and 

 in United States as far South as Nebraska and New Jersey; also along the 

 Alleghany Mountains southward into North Carolina. This bird belongs to 

 the family Certhiidcs or Creepers, of which about twelve distinct species are 

 known. They are all confined to the Old World with the exception of the Brown 

 Creeper, which is found in North America. It is divided into five subspecies or 

 climatic varieties. It is migratory. At Washington, D. C, for example, it is 

 known only as a winter visitant, arriving about September 21 and leaving about 

 May I. 



