68 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
(dy. The only note of the Red-bellied Nuthatch is an un- 
musical sound, like the word “‘ank,” which, says Mr. Maynard, 
is repeated more deliberately and. less querulously in the breed- 
ing-season than at other times; a fact, which I also have 
noticed. It is, however, varied considerably in pitch at all 
times of the year. 
§6. Certhiidse. Creepers. (See § 4.) 
I. CERTHIA 
(A) Famiviaris.!7 Brown Creeper. 
(In Eastern Massachusetts very rare in summer, but common 
in winter.) . 
(a). About 53 inches long. Bill slender and decurved ; tail- 
feathers rigid and acuminate (as in other Certhiine). Below, 
white. Tail unmarked. Other upper parts curiously and finely 
marked with several browns and whitish. 
(b). Wilson says that ‘‘ the Brown Creeper builds his nest. 
in the hollow trunk or branch of a tree, where the tree has 
been shivered, or a limb broken off, or where squirrels or 
Woodpeckers have wrought out an entrance, for nature has not 
provided him with the means of excavating one for himself.” 
Mr. Gregg (in a Catalogue of the Birds of Chemung County, 
New York) says that “the nest of this species is built of dry 
twigs attached to the sides of some perpendicular object ;” and 
that he ‘discovered one on the attic of a deserted log house ; 
the nest rested upon the inner projection of the gable clap- 
board, and was cemented together with a gummy or gelatinous 
substance.” The only nest that I have found in the neighbor- 
hood of Boston was a few feet from the ground, placed in the 
cavity formed by the rending of a tree by lightning. The 
eggs, which were fresh on the twentieth day of May, were 
grayish-white, speckled with reddish-brown, chiefly at the 
larger end, and measured about ‘60°50 of an inch. A nest, 
containing young, found in a New Hampshire forest, was much 
like one found ‘‘in a large elm in Court Square, Springfield, 
17Once called Americana and “ American Creeper.” 
