Certia & americana BREWSTER on the American Brown Creeper. 199 108. Larus californicus, Lawrence. CALIFORNIA GULL.—Upper Klamath Lake, November, 1875 (McElderry). 109. Hydrochelidon nigra (Linné). BLACK TERN.—No. 56, ad., spring of 1875. 110. Colymbus torquatus, Brünn. LOON; GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.—Hospital list (McElderry). 111. Colymbus arcticus pacificus. Lawrence.—PACIFIC BLACK-THROATED DIVER.—Hospital list (McElderry). BREEDING HABITS OF THE AMERICAN BROWN CREEPER (CERTHIA FAMILIARIS AMERICANA). BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. In his interesting article on the American Brown Creeper, in the Bulletin for April, 1879, Dr. Brewer calls our attention to the recent occurrence of several nests of that species, which were placed within loose scales of semi-detached bark, at the same time stating it to be his opinion that this mode of nesting is the one most commonly followed by the American bird. Some further evidence tending to confirm this view of the case is offered in the following number of the Bulletin by Mr. Egbert Bagg, Jr., who notes the finding of a nest similarly constructed in Hamilton County, New York. These data cast a new light upon a previously obscure subject, although the fact that the American Creeper sometimes nests behind the loose bark of trees is by no means a novel one. As long ago as 1864 Mr. Allen described* a nest so placed, which had been examined by him in Springfield, Mass. This account, although quoted by both Samuels and Minot, seems to have been generally ignored in most of our recent standard works on ornithology, nor does Dr. Brewer refer to it in any way in the course of his article, although, in addition to being our earliest record of the breeding of the species in Massachusetts, it was apparently the first published description of what, it now appears, is the Creeper's characteristic manner of nesting. Being greatly interested in the subject, I paid a good deal of * Proc. Essex Nest., Vol. IV, p. 68, July, 1864.