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BROWN CREEPER. 
seamed with lateral lines of whitish ; above and below the 
hind part of the ear-feathers, are two streaks of white ; the 
breast is whitish, streaked with a light flax colour ; tail and 
wings, as in the male, only both edged with dull brown, instead 
of red ; belly and vent, white. This is also the colour of the 
young during the first, and to at least the end of the second 
season, when the males begin to become lighter yellowish, 
which gradually brightens to crimson ; the female always 
retains nearly the same appearance. The young male bird 
of the first year may be distinguished from the female by the 
tail of the former being edged with olive green, that of the 
latter with brown. A male of one of these birds, which I 
kept for some time, changed in the month of October from 
red to greenish yellow, but died before it recovered its former 
colour. 
BROWN CREEPER — CERTHIA FAMILIARIS. 
Plate VIIL Fig. 1. 
Little Brown Variegated Creeper, Bartram, 289. — Peak's Museum , No. 2434. 
CER THIA FA MILIAR IS. — Linnaeus. 
Certhia familiaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 469. JBonap. Synop. p. 95. — The Creeper, 
Bewick , Brit. Birds , i. p. 148. — Le Griinpereau, Temm. Man. i. p. 410. — 
Common Creeper, Selby III. plate 39, vol. i. p. 116. 
This bird agrees so nearly with the common European 
Creeper, ( Certhia familiaris ,) that I have little doubt of their 
being one and the same species.* I have examined at different 
* I have compared numerous British specimens with skins from North 
America, and can find no differences that will entitle a separation of species. 
In this country they are very abundant, more so apparently in winter, so that 
we either receive a great accession from the more northern parts of Europe, 
or the colder season and diminished supply of food draws them from their 
woody solitudes nearer to the habitations of man. It is often said to be 
rare, an opinion no doubt arising from the difficulty of seeing it, and from its 
solitary and unassuming manners. A short quotation from a late author 
