178 USEFUL BIRDS. 
wanderer from the dizzy heights of those towering trunks. 
In the pine woods of New England or Canada the Creeper 
ever goes its ceaseless rounds. It is a guardian of the 
tree trunk. It is not very often seen among the branches, 
although it sometimes feeds on the seed of the pine. 
The Creeper feeds very largely on insects, which it finds 
on the bark or extracts from the cracks and crevices with its 
long, sharp bill. I have often tried to determine by obser- 
vation the food of this bird, but can only say that it seems 
to find boring grubs and the pupe and eggs of insects. 
In this quest it examines a large number of trees daily. Mr. 
Bailey spent an hour watching one of these birds on March 30, 
1899. It inspected forty-three trees, beginning about two 
feet from the ground, or at just about the height to which 
the ground-frequenting birds would reach. Thirty-six trees 
“were white oak and seven white pine. It went up each tree 
about twenty feet, going round and round the trunk, then 
flew to another. It appeared to prefer the white oak to any 
other tree, probably because the oaks in that locality were 
infested with numerous insects. It progressed in this man- 
ner about one hundred yards within the hour. At night a 
Creeper, probably the same bird, was still in the near-by 
woods. We have little accurate knowledge of the food of 
this bird. The only precise determination of its food that 
has come to my notice is recorded by Dr. Judd in Maryland. 
The stomach contained such beetles as Helops acreus and 
Bruchus hibisci; also sawflies, ants, spiders, and seeds of 
scrub pine. 
THRASHERS AND MOCKINGBIRDS. 
This group is represented here by the Thrasher and Cat- 
bird. Both are birds of the thicket, and are found habitu- 
ally in sprout growth or young coppice, and in shrubbery 
on the borders of woods. They feed largely on or near the 
ground and in shrubbery, but often make excursions into 
woods, pastures, fields, or gardens, 
