BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. 169 
During the breeding season this bird is found from Texas and Louisiana to 
Wisconsin and New England, and even as far north as Fort Simpson, British America, 
and from the Atlantic to the Plains. It winters south to Central America and the 
West Indies. 
In south-western Missouri the Black and White Creepers arrive usually late in April, 
and in central Wisconsin I have never seen them before May 10; usually they become 
. abundant when the orchard trees are in full bloom. They are, at least in spring, 
always seen singly or in pairs; during their fall migration small family groups may 
be seen occasionally. Although found frequently in the same flowering trees with other 
Warblers they never mingle with them. In their method of securing food they differ 
from all our other Warblers. They scramble actively about the trunks and branches 
of the trees, much in the manner of the true Creepers (Certhia), originating their 
classification with that family by our older ornithologists. Ewen to-day this error 
is manifested by its generally prevailing name Black and White Creeper and Creeping 
Warbler. 
During migration this Warbler usually enters orchards and gardens, and like 
resorts of man, toward whom it shows no shyness; it creeps fearlessly up the trunks 
of trees and along the fences, looking diligently for inseéts and their larve that may be 
hidden in the crevices of the bark and underneath the foliage. Subsisting entirely upon 
a great variety of noxious insects, it is eminently useful, as all Warblers are. The good 
services it renders in this way to man cannot be overestimated. As it creeps around 
the trunks and stumps it often utters its rather weak call-notes sounding like tsip or 
chip. The chant which almost incessantly is poured forth on mild and sunny June days 
is decidedly Warbler-like. It is not very musical, being a rather feeble refrain of chitchi- 
chi-che-che-chee, or we-we-we-we-we-see. As the bird is a very diligent songster, it 
fills its place well in the choir of our forest musicians. 
The nest is usually placed on the ground—rarely in holes of stumps and trees— 
built of grasses, leaves, bark-strips, and moss, lined with fine, soft rootlets, hairs, and 
fern-down. It is usually imbedded in a depression and placed on a foundation of old 
leaves near a fallen log, an old stump, or among the roots of a tree. Frequently it is 
hidden under the shelter of dense fern-fronds or bushes. The nest is, as a rule, so art- 
fully concealed as to be discovered only by accident. The eggs, four to five in number, 
are of a creamy-white ground-color, more or less evenly sprinkled with brown dots, 
generally in the form of a wreath around the larger end. 
I have seen these Warblers during the breeding season in Texas and Louisiana, 
but I was never fortunate enough to find a nest. Mr. C. W. Beckham found the Creep- 
ing Warbler breeding at Bayou Sara, La. On April 23 he found a nest, containing four 
eggs. It was placed on the ground in a densely wooded hillside, loosely constructed of 
dead leaves, etc., and was roofed over so as to be completely sheltered from the rain. 
The female did not Jeave the nest until he was two to three feet of her, when she flew 
on the ground, feigning lameness, but this old and pathetic subterfuge proved unfortu- 
nate. It led to the discovery of the nest which was admirably concealed and would 
never have been found, had not the bird itself betrayed its location. 
NAMES: Brack anp WHITE WaRBLER, Black and White Creeper, Creeping Warbler. — Klettersanger (German). 
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