160 BROWN CREEPER. 



which I have seen were loosely formed of grasses and lichens of various 

 sorts, and warmly lined with feathers, among which I in one instance 

 found some from the abdomen of Tetrao Umbellus. The eggs are from 

 six to eight, but in some instances I have found only five, when I have 

 supposed them to belong to a second brood. They measure five-eighths 

 and three-fourths of an inch in length, four and a quarter-eighths in 

 their greatest breadth. Their ground-colour is white, with a yellow- 

 ish tint, irregularly marked with red and purplish spots and dots, which 

 are larger and more crowded toward the broad end, leaving a space at 

 its apex nearly free, as is also the case with that of the narrow end ; 

 there are small dots of pvu-e neutral tint here and there, but none of 

 those " streaks of dark brown" described by Wilson. 



The young, like those of our Woodpeckers and Nuthatches, remain 

 about the nest until they are able to fly, and in their minority are well 

 supplied with food. The members of a family usually remain together 

 until the next spring. 



The males of this species are larger than the females. This dif- 

 ference is very apparent in the bill. In the winter months, the Brown 

 Creeper is not unfrequently seen in orchards, and at a short distance 

 from farm-houses ; but in the breeding season it retires to the interior 

 of the forests. Its food consists chiefly of ants, larvae, small insects, 

 and particles of lichens ; and, if one be placed near the nose, it is gene- 

 rally found to emit an odour like that of ants. 



I have figured a male and female, the former on wing, for the pur- 

 pose of being more conveniently compared with the European Creeper, 

 which I am convinced belongs to the same species. I have to regret, 

 however, that only ten in place of twelve feathers have been represented 

 in the tail, which must have been defective in my specimen. 



Cehthia familiaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. \M.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. L p. 280. 



— Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 95. 

 Beown Creeper, Certhia familiaris, Wils. Amer. Omith. vol. i. p. 122, pi. 8, 



% 1. 

 Beown Creeper, NuUaU, Manual, vol. i. p. 585. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCCXV. Fig. 1. 



Bill a little shorter than the head, arched, very slender, much com- 

 pressed, acute ; upper mandible with the dorsal line arched, the ridge 



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