BROWN CREEPER. 159 



shoots downward in its usual manner, and alights a little above the roots 

 of another in the neighbourhood. I have observed it when satiated, 

 remain still and silent as if asleep, and, as it were, glued to the bark, 

 for nearly an hour at a time. But whether the bird was really asleep, 

 or wished to elude us, is more than I can affirm, although I am inclined 

 toward the latter supposition, because toward night it retires to a hole, 

 where frequently as many as a whole brood repose together, as I have 

 on several occasions witnessed. 



When on the move, the Brown Creeper emits at short intervals a 

 sharp, quick, rather grating note, peculiar to itself, and by which you 

 may, if acquainted with it, discover from a distance of more than sixty 

 yards, in calm weather, where it is. Yet, after all, it requires some 

 time, and a good eye, to perceive it, if on one of the upper branches of 

 a tall tree. The name of " Gleaner," applied to this bird, is, in my 

 opinion, very inappropriate ; for instead of its following the different 

 tribes of small Woodpeckers, or even Nuthatches, which, however, are 

 at times found in company with it, I have seen our little hunter tra- 

 vel over every part of a large and tall tree, and afterwards remove to 

 another, before the Woodpecker had hammered its Avay to a grub, 

 which it knew to be under the bark ; and all the activity of our Nut- 

 hatches does not perhaps surpass that of the present species. Yet they 

 all pursue their avocations at the same time, and now and then on the 

 same trees, although this is by no means a constant habit with them. 



Wilson was of opinion that the Brown Creeper moves " rapidly and 

 uniformly along, with his tail bent to the tree, and not in the hopping 

 manner of the Woodpecker ;" but I must differ from him, for the bird 

 at each move actually hops, assisted by the pressure of its elastic tail, 

 which indeed is the case with all our Woodpeckers, whether on the up- 

 per or the lower surface of a branch. This may be easily seen on plac- 

 ing a Brown Creeper in a cage containing a piece of a branch covered 

 with scaly bark. 



This bird breeds in the hole of a tree, giving a marked preference 

 to such as are small and rounded at the entrance. For this reason, per- 

 haps, it often takes possession of the old and abandoned nests of our 

 smaller Woodpeckers and Squirrels ; but it is careless as to the height 

 of the situation above the ground, for I have found its nest in a hole in 

 a broken stump which I could reach with my hand, although I could 

 not examine it on account of the hardness of the wood. All the nests 



