492 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Certhia familiaris americana (Bonaparte) 

 Brown Creeper 



Plate 102 



Certhia americana Bonaparte. Geog. & Comp. List. 1838. 11 



DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 50, fig. 90 

 Certhia familiaris am e ri c a n a A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 344. 

 No. 726 



certhia, Lat., certhius, a creeper; familiaris, Lat., domestic 



Description. Upper parts streaked and mottled with brown, white 

 and ocherous; rump pale rufous; wings when spread show a band of 

 creamy buff across the middle of the feathers ; tail grayish brown, the tips 

 of the feathers pointed and stiffened; under parts dull white; bill slender 

 and slightly curved. 



Length 5.25-5.75 inches; extent 7.5-8; wing 2.6; tail 2.7; bill .63; 

 tarsus .53. 



This little bird, which is the only representative of its family in New 

 York, may easily be distinguished from all of our other tree-creeping birds 

 by its principal color matching so closely the tree bark, its slender curved 

 bill, and its long tail which is held against the tree for a support, like the 

 tails of woodpeckers. 



Distribution, This subspecies inhabits eastern North America, breed- 

 ing from southern Manitoba, central Ontario, southern Quebec and New- 

 foundland southward to eastern Nebraska, northern Indiana, New York, 

 Massachusetts and along the AUeghanies to North Carolina. Winters 

 from New York to the gulf coast. In the greater portion of New York 

 it is a transient visitant, and sparingly a winter resident, the few which 

 remain all winter being joined, between the ist and the 15th of April, by 

 numerous individuals which have wintered farther south. The greater 

 nimiber leave for their northern summer home from the loth to the 30th 

 of April in the warmest part of the State, and from the ist to the i6th or 

 even the 25th of May in the interior. Throughout the Adirondacks and 

 Catskills this bird is an abundant summer resident. While passing along 

 the trails of the Adirondack wilderness one meets this species every few 



