FAMILY XL 
TENUIR 0 S TEES, Illiger . 
GENUS XXVl. — CEltTHIA, I,lNN*us. 
146. CEETHTA FAMJLIARIS, UNN’. AND WILS. —BROWN 
W'lLSON, PLATE VIH. FlO. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM* 
This bird agrees so nearly with the common 
pean creeper, {certhia familiaris^ that I have !>*** 
doubt of their being one and the same species. ^ 
The brown creeper is an extremely active and resw j 
little bird. In winter it associates with the small 
woodpecker, nuthatch, titmouse, &c ; and often 
in their rear, gleaning up those insects wdiich their 
powerful bills had alarmed and exposed; for its 
slender incurvated bill seems unequal to the task .j 
penetrating into even the decayed wood; thou^k^ 
may into holes, and behind scales of the bark. Of * I 
titmouse there are, generally, present the individnaJ* j 
a whole fiunily, and seldom more than one or 
the others. As the party advances through the wo" , 
from tree to tree, our httle gleaner seems to obscr'*^^ 
good deal of regularity in his proceedings ; for I 
almost always observed, that he alights on the 
near the root of the tree, and directs his course, . 
great nirableness, upwards to the higher brancftiy 
sometimes spirally, often in a direct line, moving rap* j 
and uniformly along, with his tail bent to the tree, ** - 
in «» . 1 1 » M'D*' 
not in the hopping manner of the woodpecker, 
Vi r« ■pQl' I... J_ a I j. _ _ - I? 1 • 
he far surpasses in dexterity of climbing, running 
the lower side of the horizontal branches with * ^ 
prising ease. If any person be near when he 
he is sure to keep the opposite side of the tree, *a**'j|ii 
round as he moves, so as to prevent him from 
more than a transient glimpse of him. The best m®*" 
