WiDMANX, Broz.u Creeper Nesting in Missouri. 353 



Yes, there was the nest as I suspected ; a bulky accumulation 

 of shreds of cypress bark loosely thrown in below, but more and 

 more compact toward the elliptical cavity, which was an inch deep 

 and warmly lined with a felt-like material. Imbedded in, and 

 partly covered with felt lay one egg of white color with fine red 

 dots. I did not disturb the nest and quietly left the place. 



At first I cherished visions of such a desirable thing as a full 

 set, but recalling instances when rare opportunities were lost by 

 too long waiting, I returned on the 17th, took the three eggs 

 which the nest contained, sawed off the detached plate of bark, 

 about 8-16 inches, liberated the nest from its imprisonment and 

 my mind from the growing fear to lose it. 



The nest had the peculiar structure, by which the nest of the 

 species may always be known from other nests in similar situa- 

 tions, and which is minutely described by Mr. Brewster in Volume 

 IV of the Nuttall Bulletin. 



The locality where the nest was found is the Little River 

 overflow, east of Cotton Plant, Dunklin Co., Mo., seven miles 

 from the south line of the peninsula. The flora as well as the 

 ornis of this region is highly interesting. While the botanist 

 finds that the Floridan and Texan floras meet in the sandy fields 

 and swampy woods of the Peninsula of Missouri, the ornithologist 

 who sees the Canada Goose and Black Vulture, the Brown Creeper 

 and Swainson's Warbler on neighboring breeding grounds, is 

 liable to have new surprises at every visit. 



Though only a ridge of a few miles in width separates the 

 Little River region from the St. Francis basin, both flora and 

 ornis differ somewhat, the latter mainly through absence from the 

 Little River region of birds which habitually feed on dry ground. 

 The stage of water in the St. Francis is dependent only on the 

 precipitation in the region which it drains ; it rises to a well 

 defined height which it reaches every year and from which it 

 slowly recedes in summer. 



With the Little River it is different ; bayous connect it with the 

 Mississippi and a high stage in the latter pours its muddy waters 

 through the bayous into the Little River, causing a rise of five or 

 six feet above the ordinary yearly overflow. The occurrence of 

 such great floods has been uncomfortably frequent of late ; that 

 45 



