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BROWN CREEPER. 
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 dexterity 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 considerable 
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 difference between the colours 
and markings of the male and female. 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 of their 
plumage, I could find little or no difference; the colours, 
indeed, were rather more vivid and intense in some than in 
others : but sometimes this superiority belonged to a male. 
