64 
BROWN CREEPER. 
ceedings; for I have almost always observed that he alights on 
the body near the root of the tree, and directs his course with 
great nimbleness upwards to the higher branches, sometimes 
spirally, often in a direct line, moving rapidly and uniformly 
along, with his tail bent to the tree, and not in the hopping 
manner of the Woodpecker, whom he far surpasses in dexter- 
ity of climbing, running along the lower side of the horizontal 
branches with surprising ease. If any person be near when he 
alights, he is sure to keep the opposite side of the tree, moving 
round as he moves, so as to prevent him from getting more than 
a transient glimpse of him. The best method of outwitting him, 
if you are alone, is, as soon as he alights and disappears behind 
the trunk, take your stand behind an adjoining one, and keep 
a sharp look out twenty or thirty feet up the body of the tree 
he is upon, for he generally mounts very regularly to a consi- 
derable height, examining the whole way as he advances. In 
a minute or two, hearing all still, he will make his appearance 
on one side or other of the tree, and give you an opportunity 
of observing him. 
These birds are distributed over the whole United States; 
but are most numerous in the western and northern states, and 
particularly so in the depth of the forests, and in tracts of large 
timbered woods, where they usually breed; visiting the thicker 
settled parts of the country in fall and winter. They are more 
abundant in the flat woods of the lower district of New Jersey 
than in Pennsylvania; and are frequently found among the 
pines. Though their customary food appears to consist of those 
insects of the coleopterous class, yet I have frequently found in 
their stomachs the seeds of the pine tree, and fragments of a 
species of fungus that vegetates in old wood, with generally a 
large proportion of gravel. There seems to be scarcely any dif- 
ference between the colours and markings of the male and fe- 
male. In the month of March I opened eleven of these birds, 
among whom were several females, as appeared by the clusters 
of minute eggs with which their ovaries were filled, and also 
several well-marked males, and, on the most careful comparison 
