Plate LXVIII. 



Fig. 9. MNIOTILTA VARIA-Black and White Creeper. 



The Black and White Creeper is a regular summer resident in suitable localities throughout the 

 State, arriving in the spring, the last of April or the first of May, and remaining till September, during 

 which time it usually rears but one brood. 



LOCALITY : 



It frequents woodlands generally in the early part of the season, but as the time for nesting- 

 approaches it is only found in retired pieces of timber with underbrush, according to Dr. Wheaton, 

 "preferably second growth, mixed woodland." The nest is built on the ground at the foot of a stump, 

 a sapling, or some such place, with but little effort at concealment other than that afforded by the general 

 similarity of its materials to the surroundings. 



POSITION : 



A slight depression in the ground, or among the leaves and debris of the site, is chosen as a suitable 

 position, and thus, supported from below and about its circumference, the nest is snugly and safely 

 located. 



MATERIALS: 



The foundation usually consists of rather coarse weed-stems, strips of bark, leaves, leaf-stems, and 

 the like, arranged circularly and criss-cross, and compactly pressed together. Finer material of the same 

 kind, and in addition grasses and tendrils, compose the superstructure, and within this is a lining made 

 up of very fine grasses, hairs, and frequently plant down. Nests have been found that were roofed, like 

 the nest of the Golden Crowned Thrush, and it is said that occasionally, instead of building on the 

 ground, this Warbler nests in a hole in a tree or a crevice in the bark, after the manner of the Tufted 

 Titmouse. 



EGGS: 



The complement of eggs is four or five. The ground-color is white, and the markings, which consist 

 chiefly of blotches, spots, and speckles, are reddish-brown, the same color as the marks on the eggs of 

 L. bicolor. Eggs before me measure in long-diameter from .65 to .74, and in short-diameter from 

 .50 to .55. A common size is about .53 x .70. The following measurements are given for these eggs by 

 different writers: .69 to .75 of an inch in length, and from .50 to .53 of an inch in breadth, .70 to .75 

 in length, and from .50 to .52 in breadth, .65 x .55 of an inch, .70 x .50 to .80 x .55, and .65 x .54 of an 

 inch. The markings are generally most plentiful about the base, often forming a more or less confluent 

 rin°\ As with most eggs of this size and color of markings, specimens are frequently found without 



305 



