North Scituate, Mass
1900
May 23
  Clear, rather hazy, warmer but with chill E. wind.
  I came home late yesterday afternoon and spent
the night at the Chadbourne's. The object of this
visit was to see and photograph a Brown Creepers'
nest which Arthur Chadbourne found in the big cedar
swamp a week or so ago. It was built not under
a scale of bark, as is usually the case, but in the
main trunk of a tall white cedar which had been
blown partly over and split lengthwise for several
feet above the ground. My pictures will show
the character of the opening better than I can
describe it. I spent upwards of two hours in
taking them and got two or three small but
clear impressions of the female Creeper clinging to the
trunk near the nest which contained four young
two or three days old. The female parent visited them
with food every two or three minutes slipping
into the cleft a foot or two above the nest &
then descending to it head first. She obtained the
food in the usual way by running up the trunk
of the tree & prying out larvae or grubs of some kind
with her slender bill. All the morsals  that she
brought were small & were hard in the tips of
her mandibles. Usually she went not more than
20 yards away in the quest for food. The male came
with her to the nest several times & one brought
food but after holding it in his bill for several
minutes finally dropped it. He sang only twice
in my hearing. The nest was about 5 feet above
the ground. The two stood on an edge of a small clearing.
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