130 BROWN CREEPER. 
of the bark, in part of the seeds of conifers, and doubtless other small hard fruits. 
Their sociability is a prominent trait; indeed, they may almost be called gregarious at 
all times excepting during the breeding season. Flocks of a dozen or twenty, and even 
up to fifty or a hundred, are not seldom seen; and in the same company Titmice and 
Warblers may often be found. They are extremely noisy at such times—not clamorous 
in fretfulness or irritation, but with the jovial abandon of good fellowship.” 
The nidification agrees with that of its congeners. 
NAMES: Pyemy Nutuarcu, California Nuthatch. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: SITTA PYGMEA Vicors (1839).—S. pusilla pygmza Allen (1872). 
DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. ‘Above, ashy-blue; head and upper part of neck greenish ashy-brown, its lower 
border passing a little below the eye, where it is darker; nape with an obscure whitish spot. Chin and 
throat, whitish; rest of lower parts brownish-white; the sides and behind like the back, but paler. 
Middle tail-feather like the back; its basal half with a long white spot; its outer web edged with 
black at the base.— Length about 4 inches; wing, 2.40 inches.” B. B. & R., 1, p. 120. 
[The family Certhiidae, or CREEPERS, is a small well-defined group of birds con- 
fined to the Old World, with the exception of a single species, the Brown Creeper, which 
occurs in the New World also. 
BROWN CREEPER. 
Certhia familiaris americana R1IpGw. 
UR Brown CREEPER is closely allied to the European Creeper. Although nowhere 
abundant, it is, nevertheless, not an uncommon bird in all favorable localities, 
on the plains, in the wooded valleys, in the mountain forests, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. In summer it is found northward of our Northern States, breeding chiefly 
in the Canadian Fauna. I have found it sparingly in summer in central Wisconsin, in 
woods consisting partly of conifers, partly of deciduous trees. In the Middle and Gulf 
States, it is very numerous during the migration, being observed always singly or in 
pairs, sometimes in company with Chickadees and Nuthatches. In spring and fall, it 
frequently is seen in our orchards and parks, and even on the trees in the streets and 
door-yards of our larger cities, winding its spiral way up the trunks. It is always seen 
alighting on the foot of a tree and climbing indefatigably up the trunk hunting for 
minute insects which lurk in the crevices of the bark. When the first limbs are reached 
it flies to the foot of another tree where the same performance is repeated. It destroys 
in this way an immense number of noxious inseéts, and is thus of great service to man. 
I think it has rather a fondness for conifers and other trees with rough bark, as its 
delicate bill can more easily penetrate into the larger cracks; moreover, it is more difficult 
for its enemies to detect it on these trees, because of the similarity of its color to that 
of the bark on which it creeps. 
