Besides the single call-note or the sharp outcry with which the Creepers signalize their movements, and which they utter from time to time as they rapidly and busily move up and down the trunks and limbs, or flit from tree to tree, they have been generally regarded as having no song. But this is not the fact. The careful observations of Mr. William Brewster of Cambridge have satisfied him that these birds have a very distinct and varied song. During the winter these birds are not uncommon in the vicinity of Boston, coming about the houses with all the tameness and confidence of the Parus atricapillus, and permit a very near approach. They are very easily attracted by suspending from a piazza a piece of fat meat. Mr. Brewster has observed them commence singing as early as the 14th of March. Their notes are varied and warbling and somewhat confused; some of them are loud, powerful, and surpassingly sweet, others are more feeble and plaintive; their song usually ends with their accustomed cry, which may be represented by crēē-crēē-crē-ēp. Mr. Brewster, besides repeatedly hearing them sing in Massachusetts in the early spring, has also listened to their song in Maine in the month of June.
Their eggs are small in proportion 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.
Certhia familiaris, var. mexicana, Glog.
MEXICAN CREEPER.
Certhia mexicana, “Gloger, Handbuch,” Reichenbach, Handbuch, I, 1853, 265, pl. dlxii, figs. 3841, 3842.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 290; 1858, 297; 1859, 362, 372.—Salvin, Ibis, 1866, 190 (Volcan de Fuego, Guat.).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 373 (under C. americana), pl. lxxxiii, fig. 2; Review, 90.
Sp. Char. Ground-color above very dark sepia-brown, each feather with a sharply defined medial streak of grayish-white, these streaks becoming broader posteriorly, where they are discontinued at the beginning of the rump. Whole rump and upper tail-coverts chestnut-rufous. Beneath pale ashy, becoming almost white on the throat; crissal feathers deep ochraceous except at the tips, which are whitish. Markings of the wings as usual. Measurements (8176, Mexico): wing, 2.50; tail, 2.70; bill (from nostril), .48; hind claw, .30.
Hab. Guatemala and Mexico; probably extending along the table-lands into the United States.
This is one of the best marked of the various races that have been discussed (see [p. 124]). The ground-color of the upper parts is altogether darker than in any of the others, and the streaks are more sharply defined and narrower;
the rufous of the rump is of a castaneous, instead of yellowish cast; the wings appear more uniform with the back, owing to the dark color of the latter, and their pale markings have little of that yellowish tinge so noticeable in the others. In the ashy tinge of the lower parts there is a resemblance to familiaris of Europe; but the latter has not the ochraceous crissum so noticeable in the present bird. There is little resemblance to Western and Rocky Mountain specimens of the C. americana and if these are to be considered as separable from the Eastern (which, however, would not, in our opinion, be advisable) they must not be referred to mexicana.
The Mexican Creeper is introduced here on account of the probability of its occurrence in the Southern Rocky Mountains.