32 Bird Portraits 



respect, offers a marked contrast to its companions and relatives, 

 the sociable Chickadees and Kinglets. 



The eyes of a Creeper are so near the bark which it is inspect- 

 ing, that it is not strange that it finds food where we should look in 

 vain. It has, besides, a very long curved bill which will reach into 

 crevices in the bark, and before the end of the winter, it has 

 undoubtedly stripped the trees of a large proportion of the dormant 

 insects and their eggs, especially as, like the other winter birds, it 

 seems to have a very regular beat, visiting the same groups or rows 

 of trees every day. Few birds are so strictly arboreal as the 

 Creepers. The writer has only once seen one alight on the ground, 

 when the bird flew to a little stream to bathe. In the ice storms 

 which occasionally clothe every trunk and limb with a glassy covering, 

 the Creeper has to confine itself to the leeward side of the trees. 

 Occasionally the Creeper, on account of its practice of beginning at 

 the bottom of the trunk, flies to a spot on the tree below the band 

 of tarred paper, which protects the shade trees from the visits of the 

 canker-worm moth. On reaching the band, the bird makes a circuit 

 of the trunk, in a vain attempt to find a passage. It is better 

 provided, however, than the wingless moths, and when the circuit has 

 been made, a short flight carries it over. 



In April, the Creeper leaves its winter quarters for the North, 

 and joins many other species in the great spruce forests of northern 

 New England and Canada. Occasionally, on warm mornings before 

 its departure, the male indulges in a little song, of the thinnest 

 quality imaginable. When the pair reach their northern home, they 

 hunt for a crevice under some great flake of loose bark, and there 

 construct their nest. The bark of trees, therefore, furnishes the 

 Creeper with a cradle at birth and a home for the rest of its life. 



