Jan., 1908 



27 



THE TAWNY CREEPER IN WESTERN WASHINGTON 



By J. H. BOWLES 



ALTHO resident thruout the year, the Tawny Creeper {Cerfhia faiiiiliaris oc- 

 cidentalis) is locally distributed and must be considered as rather rare even 

 in the most favored sections. Its retiring, unobtrusive habits and weak, 

 kinglet-Hke squeaking note tend to nink? it all the more elusive, even to the most 

 experienced bird student. 



After the nesting season is 

 over it may be found only 

 in the most heavily-wooded 

 districts remote from civiliza- 

 tion. It is solitary in its hab- 

 its and even during the winter 

 months, when the nuthatches, 

 kinglets and others of its 

 near relations are traveling 

 together in bands, the creep- 

 ers are most often found alone, 

 or else working over the trees 

 with two or three more of their 

 own kind. 



In hunting over a tree in 

 the pursuit of the spiders, tiny 

 beetles and other insects 

 which make up its food sup- 

 ply, the creeper invariably 

 starts at the base, only a foot 

 or two from the ground. It 

 then works upward around 

 the tree in spirals to a height 

 of from twenty to forty feet, 

 seldom higher, and then 

 swoops suddenly down to the 

 base of another tree, acting 

 much as if it had accidentally 

 lost its hold and fallen. 



A curious feature in its 

 habits is that swampy land 

 and the vicinity of water 

 are the favorite haunts during 

 the rainy winter months, 



while during our dry summers it retires to the dryest woods it can find. This latter 

 fact was unknown to me until the spring of 1905, and for years I had looked un- 

 successfully for the nest in the low-lying, swampy districts such as the Brown 

 Creeper (C familiaris) frequents in eastern Massachusetts. 



The mystery was solved, however, on May 17, 1905, by Mr. W. Eeon Daw- 

 son, of Seattle, Wash., while we were putting in the day on the outskirts of 

 Tacoma. He marked down a creeper gathering food, and we soon traced it to the 

 nest which contained six well-grown young. The locality was very dry, on the 



NESTING SITE OF THE TAWNY CREEPER 



