FAMILY XL 
TENUIR O S TRES, Illiger. 
GENUS XXYI CERTHIA , Linnaeus. 
146. CERTHIA FAMILIARIS, LINN. AND WILS. --BROWN CREEPER. 
WILSON, PLATE VIII. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This bird agrees so nearly with the common Euro- 
pean creeper, ( certhia familiaris ,) that I have little 
doubt of their being one and the same species. 
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, moving rapidly 
and uniformly along, with his tail bent to the tree, and 
not in the hopping manner of the woodpecker, whom 
lie far surpasses in dexterity of climbing, running along 
the lower side of the horizontal branches with sur- 
prising ease. If any person be near when he alights, 
lie 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 
