Certhia familiaris, var. americana, Bonap.
BROWN CREEPER.
Certhia fusca, Barton, Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania, 1799, II. Certhia familiaris, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 70 (not the European bird); also of Wilson and Audubon.—Maynard, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 93. Certhia americana, Bonap. Comp. List. 1838.—Reich. Handb. I, 1853, 265, pl. dcxv, figs. 4102, 4103.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 372; Review, 89.—Max. Cab. Jour. 1858, 105.—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. Rep. XII, II, 1859, 192.—Hamlin, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. 1864—66, 80. Certhia mexicana, Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 58.
Sp. Char. Bill about the length of the head. Above dark brown, with a slightly rufous shade, each feather streaked centrally, but not abruptly, with whitish; rump rusty. Beneath almost silky-white; the under tail-coverts with a faint rusty tinge. A white streak over the eye; the ear-coverts streaked with whitish. Tail-feathers brown centrally, the edges paler yellowish-brown. Wings with a transverse bar of pale reddish-white across both webs. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.90. (No. 827.)
Young. (5945, Steilacoom, W. T.; Dr. J. S. Cooper.) Resembling the adult, but streaks above indistinct, and the feathers there tipped indistinctly with blackish; the rufous restricted to the upper tail-coverts. Breast and jugulum with very minute blackish wavings or indistinct bars.
Hab. Whole of United States, to Red River Settlement.
Specimens from the far west are purer white beneath, much as in costæ, but those from the northwest coast have the white tinged with light rusty. Though purer white below, these specimens are much browner above than Eastern ones,—sometimes more so than in familiaris, but then there is the yellowish crissum never seen in this “species,” and the proportions are quite different. Thus it will be seen the C. americana may always be distinguished
from the other forms; when most resembling costæ in the grayish tints of the upper plumage (as in Eastern examples), the lower parts are less purely white, and the bill and claws smaller; when like it in the proportions and pure white of the lower parts (as in Western specimens), the colors above are altogether more brown. The yellowish crissum of americanus will also distinguish them. Though often resembling familiaris in the colors of the upper parts, the latter may always be distinguished by its ashy lower parts without yellowish crissum, the shorter tail, with its less acute feathers, and stouter bill.
C. mexicanus is still more different in colors, for which see that variety.
Habits. Our common Creeper, so closely resembling the Creeper of Europe as by many to be supposed identical with it, is distributed over the whole of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to high northern latitudes. At different seasons it may be found in every one of the several States and Territories, yet it is never very abundant. The Smithsonian possesses specimens from various parts of the country, from Georgia to Fort Steilacoom on the Pacific, but of these none appear to have been secured during the period of reproduction. Dr. Heermann found them very common in the more mountainous districts of California. Dr. Cooper found these birds abundant in the forests of Washington Territory, but difficult to detect from the similarity of their color to that of the bark over which they crept. They were apparently constant residents in that Territory. Dr. Suckley, who obtained several specimens of this species in the oak groves in the vicinity of Fort Steilacoom, states that in their habits the Western birds resemble those of the Atlantic States.