200 Brewster on the American Brown Creeper. 
attention to investigating the Creeper’s breeding habits while on a 
collecting trip to Lake Umbagog, Western Maine, in May and June 
of the present year. During former seasons I had wasted much 
valuable time in sounding old Woodpecker’s holes and natural cavi- 
ties about places where the birds were evidently nesting ; but, with 
the right clew at last in my possession, I succeeded on this occasion 
in finding quite a number of nests. In the belief that the subject 
is not yet exhausted, I am induced to present the following ac- 
count of my observations. 
Throughout the heavily timbered region bordering on Lake 
Umbagog the Brown Creeper is of regular occurrence during the 
breeding season. It is never an abundant species there, but each 
square mile of suitable woodland is pretty sure to harbor a pair or 
two, and in places along the lake shores, where numerous decaying 
stubs form an outer fringe to sombre forests of spruce and fir, the 
combination of favorable conditions attracts them in somewhat 
greater numbers. Any considerable collection of these stubs is 
nearly certain to afford one or more trees in just the right stage 
of decay essential for nesting purposes, while the adjoining woodlands 
offer the shade and seclusion so congenial to their solitary habits 
during this season. It was in a locality of this character that the 
first nest taken during the past season was found. Let me briefly 
sketch the picture ere it fades. 
I had crossed the lake to a sheltered cove which opened an in- 
viting way into the tangled forest. On either hand, heavily wooded 
ridges sloped steeply down to the water’s edge, cutting off the high 
north-wind that was blowing over the lake outside, and the warm 
sunshine lay upon a smooth basin that was seldom dimpled by even 
a passing breeze. At its farther extremity, where a mossy bank rose 
abruptly from the shore, graceful hemlocks laved the tips of their 
drooping branches in the water, and tall firs and spruces looked 
down upon the perfect reflection of their stiff, soldierly forms in the 
mirror-like surface beneath. Here and there, where the land was 
more level and the water flowed back among the trees, grim stubs, 
many of them hung with streamers of the yellowish-gray Usnea 
u moss,” stood grouped about, adding to the picturesqueness of the 
scene. 
These quiet little nooks abound about most of the Maine lakes, 
and they are almost invariably well stocked with birds. The retire- 
ment that they offer, coupled with the increased abundance of 
