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BROWN TREE-CREEPER. 



-' Certhia familiaris, Linn. 

 PLATE CXV.— Male and Female. 



The only parts of the United States in which I have not met with this 

 species during winter are the eastern and northern portions of the Floridas. 

 This has appeared the more strange to me, because I have observed several 

 of these birds in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, at that 

 season, during which it is not rare in any of the States intervening between 

 these and Maryland. In the spring and summer months, or what is usually 

 called the breeding season, the Brown Creeper may be found over the whole 

 country, from the thick woods of the northern parts of Pennsylvania to 

 Newfoundland. None were seen by my party or myself in Labrador, and 

 as no mention is made of this species in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, I 

 suspect that the want of sufficiently wooded localities prevents it from pro- 

 ceeding so far north. 



This bird alights on trees of all kinds, in the Carolinas on pines, in Maine 

 on maples, in Kentucky on hickories, oaks, or ash-trees; and as, from the 

 time when it is first able to fly, it is one of the most constant roamers of the 

 forest, you may meet with it in almost any part of the woods. The taller 

 trees, however, are generally preferred by it, perhaps on account of its 

 reluctance to fly from one tree to another at a distance. It seldom leaves a 

 tree without searching all its crannies, from near the roots to the tops of the 

 larger branches, which it does with incomparable assiduity and care, yet by 

 movements so rapid that a person unacquainted with it might be inclined to 

 think that it runs up the trunk and branches, directly or spirally, above or 

 beneath the latter, without any other intention than that of reaching the end 

 of its journey as quickly as possible. The reverse of this, however, is the 

 case, for, shoot one of them when you please, you will find its stomach 

 crammed with insects and larva?, such as occur on the trees. When these 

 are not found in abundance, the Creeper appears to discover the scarcity very 

 soon, and instead of continuing its search, abandons the tree when not many 

 yards from the ground, and launching off shoots downwards in its usual 

 manner, and alights a little above the roots of another in the neighbourhood. 

 I have observed it when satiated, remain still and silent as if asleep, and, as 

 it were, glued to the bark, for nearly an hour at a time. But whether the 



Vol. II. 18 



