t beechnut I take it
to a little crack in a tree that will just hold it; then with this stout
bill of mine I crack the shell. It really is quite easy when you know
how. Cracking a nut open that way is sometimes called hatching, and
that is how I come by the name of Nuthatch. Hello! There's Seep-Seep. I
haven't seen him since we were together up North. His home was not far
from mine."

As Yank-Yank spoke, a little brown bird alighted at the very foot of the
next tree. He was just a trifle bigger than Jenny Wren but not at all
like Jenny, for while Jenny's tail usually is cocked up in the sauciest
way, Seep-Seep's tail is never cocked up at all. In fact, it bends down,
for Seep-Seep uses his tail just as the members of the Woodpecker family
use theirs. He was dressed in grayish-brown above and grayish-white
beneath. Across each wing was a little band of buffy-white, and his bill
was curved just a little.

Seep-Seep didn't stop an instant but started up the trunk of that tree,
going round and round it as he climbed, and picking out things to
eat from under the bark. His way of climbing that tree was very like
creeping, and Peter thought to himself that Seep-Seep was well named the
Brown Creeper. He knew it was quite useless to try to get Seep-Seep to
talk, He knew that Seep-Seep wouldn't waste any time that way.

Round and round up the trunk of the tree he went, and when he reached
the top at once flew down to the bottom of the next tree and without
a pause started up that. He wasted no time exploring the branches, but
stuck to the trunk. Once in a while he would cry in a thin little voice,
"Seep! Seep!" but never paused to rest or look around. If he had felt
that on him alone depended the job of getting all the insect eggs and
grubs on those trees he could not have been more industrious.

"Does he build his nest in a hole in a tree?" asked Peter of Yank-Yank.
Yank-Yank shook his head. "No," he replied. "He hunts for a tree or stub
with a piece of loose bark hanging to it. In behind this he tucks his
nest made of twigs, strips of bark and moss. He's a funny little fellow
and I don't know of any one in all the great world who more strictly
attends to his own business than does Seep-Seep the Brown Creeper. By
the way, Peter, have you seen anything of Dotty the Tree Sparrow?"

"Not yet," replied Peter, "but I think he must be here. I'm glad you
reminded me of him. I'll go look for him."

CHAPTER XL. Some Merry Seed-