Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
tuous diligence, is never found far from the nuthatches, titmice, 
and kinglets, though not strictly in their company, for he is a 
rather solitary bird. Possibly he repels them by being too ex- 
asperatingly conscientious. 
Beginning at the bottom of a rough-barked tree (for a smooth 
bark conceals no larve), the creeper silently climbs upward in a 
sort of spiral, now lost to sight on the opposite side of the tree, 
then reappearing just where he is expected to, flitting back a foot 
or two, perhaps, lest he overlooked a single spider egg, but never 
by any chance leaving a tree until conscience approves of his 
thoroughness. And yet with all this painstaking workman’s care, 
it takes him just about fifty seconds to finish a tree. Then off 
he flits to the base of another, to repeat the spiral process. Only 
rarely does he adopt the woodpecker process of partly flitting, 
partly rocking his way with the help of his tail straight up one 
side of the tree. 
Yet this little bird is not altogether the soulless drudge he 
appears. In the midst of his work, uncheered by summer sun- 
shine, and clinging with numb toes to the tree-trunk some bitter 
cold day, he still finds some tender emotion within him to voice 
in a ‘‘ wild, sweet song” that is positively enchanting at such a 
time. But it is not often this song is heard south of his nesting 
grounds. 
The brown creeper’s plumage is one of Nature’s most success- 
ful feats of mimicry—an exact counterfeit in feathers of the brown- 
gray bark on which the bird lives. And the protective coloring 
is carried out in the nest carefully tucked under a piece of loosened 
bark in the very heart of the tree. 
Pine Siskin 
(Spinus pinus) Finch family 
Called also: PINE FINCH ; PINE LINNET 
Length—4.75 to 5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the Eng- 
lish sparrow. 
Male and Female—Olive-brown and gray above, much streaked 
and striped with very dark brown everywhere. Darkest on 
head and back. Lower back, base of tail, and wing feathers 
pale sulphur-yellow. Under parts very light buff brown, 
heavily streaked. 
146 
