BROWN CREEPER. 
123 
times, great numbers of these birds, and have endeavoured 
to make a correct drawing of the male, that Europeans and 
others may judge for themselves; and the excellent artist to 
whom the plate was intrusted has done his part so well in the 
engraving, as to render the figure a perfect resemblance of the 
living original. 
The Brown Creeper is an extremely active and restless 
little bird. In winter it associates with the small spotted 
Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Titmouse, &c. ; and often follows in 
their rear, gleaning up those insects which their more powerful 
bills had alarmed and exposed ; for its own slender incurvated 
bill seems unequal to the task of penetrating into even the 
decayed wood ; though it may into holes, and behind scales of 
the bark. Of the Titmouse, there are, generally, present the 
individuals of a whole family, and seldom more than one or 
two of the others. As the party advances through the woods 
from tree to tree, our little gleaner seems to observe a good 
deal of regularity in his proceedings ; 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, 
will best explain our meaning, and confirm the account of its manners, so 
correctly described above. “ A retired inhabitant of the woods and groves, 
and not in any way conspicuous for voice or plumage, it passes its days with 
us, creating scarcely any notice or attention. Its small size, and the manner 
in which it procures its food, both tend to secrete him from sight. In these 
pursuits its actions are more like those of a mouse than of a bird, darting like 
a great moth from tree to tree, uttering a f^int trilling sound as it fixes on their 
boles, running round them in a spiral direction, when, with repeated wriggles, 
having gained the summit, it darts to the base of another, and commences 
again.” 
The present species will form the type and only individual yet discovered 
of the genus Certhia. The other birds described by our author as Certhice, will all 
rank elsewhere ; and the groups now known under the titles Cinyris, Nectarinia, 
&c. which were formerly included, making it of great extent, and certainly of 
very varied forms, will also with propriety hold their separate stations. The 
solitary type ranges in Europe, according to Pennant, as far north as Russia 
and Siberia, and Sandmore in Sweden. In North America, it will extend 
nearly over the whole continent. — Ed. 
