314 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
bright rusty; white line over eye ; below white; feathers about vent and under tail- 
coverts, in most specimens, are soiled, more or less, with pale reddish-brown ; large 
wing-quills, except outer two or three primaries, transversely barred with pale red¬ 
dish-white. 
Habitat .—North America in general, breeding from the northern and more ele¬ 
vated parts of the United States northward, migrating southward in winter. 
The Brown Creeper is a rather abundant spring- and fall migrant 
throughout the state. In winter it is also frequently met with, but is never 
as common during the winter months as when migrating in April and 
October. This unsuspicious and brown-coated creeper frequents chiefly 
forests; he also sometimes is seen in trees in lawns, parks and gardens. 
Like a woodpecker, this bird creeps up and around the trunks of trees; 
and so similar is the coloration of his upper parts, to the rough bark 
over which he nimbly moves, that he frequently escapes notice. 
Although unsuspicious, often permitting you to approach within a few 
feet of the tree-trunk on which he so industriously is seeking his insect 
food, he usually, when closely approached, quietly and quickly slips 
round to the opposite side of the tree from the observer. I have never 
observed this species in Pennsylvania in summer, but that it breeds 
sparingly in our mountainous regions there is ample proof. 
Prof. August Kock mentions it as a regular but rather rare breeder in 
the mountainous districts of Lycoming county, in the neighborhood of 
Williamsport. Mr. George B. Sennett informs me that this bird breeds 
occasionally in the elevated parts of Erie county, where it also is some¬ 
times seen during mild Avinters. Prof. H. Justin Roddy has found 
these birds during the summer months in the mountains of Perry and 
Centre counties. In the forests of Sullivan county, at an altitude of 
about 2,000 fee^, the Brown Creeper is reported, by Mr. Otto Behr, to be 
a regular, though not common, summer resident. “ They breed in hoi- # 
low trees, in the deserted holes of the woodpeckers, and in the decayed 
stumps and branches of trees. Their nest is a loose aggregation of soft, 
warm materials, not interwoven, but simply collected with regard to no 
other requisite than warmth. * * * Their eggs are small in propor¬ 
tion to the size of the bird, are nearly oval in shape, with a grayish- 
white ground, sparingly sprinkled with small, fine, red and reddish- 
brown spots. They measure .55 by .43 of an inch.” (Hist. N. Am. B.). 
Food consists entirely of insects, especially small beetles, larvse, ants, 
flies, etc. 
Family PARID^l. Nuthatches and Tits. 
« 
Subfamily SITTING. Nuthatches. 
THE NUTHATCHES. 
Nuthatches are so named from their habit of placing nuts, seeds, etc., in crevices in 
limbs or in cracks in bark and hammering away with the hard, sharp-pointed and 
awl-like bill until the shell is broken and its nutritious and softer contents exposed. 
