106 BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPING-WARBLER. 



are from five to seven, of a short oval form, white, with a few brownish-red 

 spots chiefly at the large end. 



Two broods are raised in the season. The young go about in company, 

 following the parents, and it is not unusual to see nine or ten of these birds 

 scrambling with great activity along the trunk of a tree. I have not found 

 its nest in the Middle States, where, however, I am convinced many breed. 



I found this species in the Texas, breeding near Buffalo Bayou, where I 

 saw a young one that had fallen out of the nest, which was in the prong of a 

 broken limb not more than ten feet from the ground. It breeds in localities 

 greatly distant from each other, and, like many other birds, on this account, 

 places its nest in different situations, and varies the materials of which it is 

 composed. Mr. Nuttall saw a nest in the vicinity of Boston, which was 

 "niched in the shelving of a rock, on the surface of the ground, and was 

 externally composed of coarse stripes of the inner bark of the hemlock-tree 

 [Abies canadensis) which overshadowed the situation. With these were 

 mixed soft dissected old leaves, and a few stalks of dead grass; the lining 

 was made of a thin layer of black hair." 



The eggs of this bird measure four and a fourth eighths in length, and 

 half an inch in breadth. Some of them are much more spotted with light 

 reddish-brown and purplish dots than others. Of this latter kind I have a 

 beautiful specimen presented by my friend Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston. 



As some persons might suppose from my account of it's habits, that it 

 uses its tail to aid it in climbing, like the Brown Creeper, I must here state 

 that it never does so, but hops in the manner of the Nuthatches. My friend 

 Dr. Bachman has observed it in spring perched on small twigs and uttering 

 its song composed of half a dozen notes, which are heard at a considerable 

 distance. It arrives in South Carolina early in April, remains until about 

 the 10th of May, and has been seen on its return as early as the 1st of 

 September. 



Dr. T. M. Brewer sends me the following notice: — "This bird, which 

 you speak of as breeding in the hollows of trees, with us always builds its 

 nest on the ground. I say always, because I never knew it to lay anywhere 

 else. I have by me a nest brought to me by Mr. Appleton from Batternits, 

 New York, which was found in the drain of the house in which he resided. 

 It is neat and compact, measures 3|- inches in external diameter, 2-^ in 

 internal; its internal depth is 1 inch, the external two. It is composed 

 externally of coarse hay, and lined in an unusually compact manner with 

 horse-hair. The eggs are oval, nearly equal at both ends, and measure six- 

 eighths of an inch by nine-sixteenths, and are in markings exactly as you 

 describe them. The number in this nest was three, but their complement 

 is, I believe, four." 



