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BROWN CREEPER. 



Certhia familiaris. 



PLATE CCCCXV. Male and Female. 



The only parts of the United States in which I have not met with 

 this species during winter are the eastern and northern portions of the 

 Peninsula of the Floridas. This has appeared the more strange to 

 me, because I have observed several of these birds in Georgia, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, and Louisiana, at that season, during which it is not rare 

 in any of the States intervening between these and Maryland. In the 

 spring and summer months, or what is usually called the breeding sea- 

 son, the Brown Creeper may be found over the whole country, from the 

 thick woods of the northern parts of Pennsyhania to Newfoundland. 

 None were seen by my party or myself in Labrador, and as no men- 

 tion is made of this species in the Fauna Boreali- Americana, I suspect 

 that the want of sufficiently wooded localities prevents it from proceed- 

 ing farther north. 



This bird alights on trees of all kinds, in the Carolinas on pines, in 

 Maine on maples, in Kentucky on hickories, oaks, or ash-trees ; and 

 as, from the time when it is first able to fly, it is one of the most con- 

 stant roamers of the forest, you may meet with it in almost any part 

 of the woods. The taller trees, however, are generally preferred by 

 it, perhaps on account of its reluctance to fly from one tree to another 

 at a distance. It seldom leaves a tree without searching all its cran- 

 nies, from near the roots to the tops of the larger branches, which it 

 does with incomparable assiduity and care, yet by movements so rapid 

 that a person unacquainted with it might be inclined to think that it 

 runs up the trunk and branches, directly or spirally, above or beneath 

 the latter, without any other intention than that of reaching the end 

 of its journey as quickly as possible. The reverse of this, however, is 

 the case, for, shoot one of them when you please, you will find its sto- 

 mach crammed with insects and larvae, such as occur on the trees. 

 When these are not found in abundance, the Creeper appears to dis- 

 cover the scarcity very soon, and instead of continuing its search, aban- 

 dons the tree when not many yards from the ground, and launching off 



