The Brown-headed Creeper was seen by Dr. Heermann in Mexico, and in his paper in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy, II. p. 263, he thus mentions it:—
Plate 25
The Brown-headed Creeper
Picolaptes brunneicapillus (La Fresnaye)
“I found this bird in the arid country back of Guaymas, on the Gulf of California. The country itself is the picture of desolation, presenting a broken surface, and a confused mass of volcanic rocks, covered by a scanty vegetation of thorny bushes and cacti. In this desert I found several interesting species, which enter into our fauna as birds of Texas, and this species was one of the number. It appeared to be a lively, sprightly bird, uttering at intervals a clear, loud, ringing note. The nest, composed of grasses, and lined with feathers, was in the shape of a long purse, laid flat between the forks or on the branches of a Cactus. The entrance was a covered passage, varying from six to ten inches in length. The eggs, six in number, are of a delicate salmon color, very pale, and often so thickly speckled with ash and darker salmon-colored spots, as to give a rich cast to the whole surface of the egg.”
In the original description of this bird by the Baron La Fresnaye, an eminent French ornithologist, in Guerin’s Magazine of Zoology, 1835, p. 61 (Paris), his specimen is represented as being probably from California. It has not been noticed in that country by either of our American naturalists, though found by Dr. Heermann, as above stated, near Guaymas, in Northern Mexico.
Our figure is rather less than two-thirds of the size of life.
DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Picolaptes. Lesson, Traité d’Ornithologie, I. p. 313. (1831.)
Bill moderate, or rather long, curved, rather wide at base, but compressed towards the end; apertures of the nostrils large; wings rather short, rounded; first quill short; fourth, fifth, and sixth, usually longest and nearly equal; tail moderate, or rather long, soft at the end; legs and feet rather large and robust; claws curved, sharp. An American genus, nearly allied to others, and containing numerous species.
Picolaptes brunneicapillus. La Fresnaye, Guerin’s Mag. de Zoologie, 1835, p. 61.