BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPING-WARBLER. 1Q5 



compressed, and acute. Plumage very soft and blended. Bristles obsolete. 

 Wings long, with the second and third quills longest and about equal, the 

 first slightly shorter, and exceeding the fourth. Tail of moderate length, 

 nearly even. This genus connects the Sylvicolinse with the Certhianse. 



BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPING- WARBLER. 



4-Mniotilta varia, Linn. 

 PLATE CXIV.— Male. 



The Black-and-white Creeper appears in the State of Louisiana as soon as 

 the buds on the trees begin to expand, which happens about the middle of 

 February. It throws itself into the forests, where it breeds, and remains 

 until the beginning of November. It is usually seen on the largest trees of 

 our woods. It has a few notes, consisting of a series of rapidly enunciated 

 tweets, the last greatly prolonged. It climbs and creeps along the trunks, 

 the branches, and even the twigs of the trees, without intermission, and so 

 seldom perches, that I do not remember ever having seen it in such a posi- 

 tion. It lives principally on small ants and their larvse, which it secures as 

 it ascends or descends in a spiral direction, sidewise, with the head either 

 uppermost or beneath. It keeps its feet close together, and moves by suc- 

 cessive short hops with a rapidity equalling even that of the Brown Creeper. 

 It dives from the tops of the trees to their roots, and again ascends. At 

 other times, it alights on a decayed fallen tree, and searches the bark for 

 food, peeping into the crevices. It has only a very short flight, and moves 

 directly from the tree it is on to the nearest. 



In this manner the Black-and-white Creeper reaches the Northern Dis- 

 tricts. It always prefers the most uncultivated tracts, and is especially fond 

 of the pines and hemlock-trees of the mountain-glens. I have met with 

 it on the borders of Canada, round Lake Champlain, in the country far to 

 the north-west, on the banks of the Illinois, in Ohio, Kentucky, and all the 

 wooded districts of the Arkansas and Red River. 



In Louisiana, its nest is usually placed in some small hole in a tree, and is 

 composed of mosses in a dry state, lined with cottony substances. The eggs 



