This is a species belonging to a large family of birds, very numerous in the tropical and southern regions of the American continent, though of which not more than two species are known to venture so far north as to come within the limits of the United States. They subsist on insects, which they capture on the trunks and branches of trees, or, in the countries where such plants abound, on the large species of _Cactus_, and others of a similar character. Some of the larger birds of this group have very long and singularly curved bills, which it is supposed are peculiarly adapted to searching for insects in the deep furrows or interstices of the rough barks of trees. All have more or less strong feet and claws, designed for their manner of creeping on trees, somewhat similar to that of the Woodpeckers, but more like the Nuthatches, or little Sapsuckers, as they are commonly designated in the United States, and the Brown Creeper of our woods (_Certhia americana_). The latter is in fact the only northern representative of the family to which our present species belongs, but so small, that it conveys but a faint idea of the form and colors of these birds generally. They are, however, for the greater part, birds of plain colors, frequently brown of various shades, or snuff-colored. The bird figured in the present plate was first noticed in Texas, by Capt. J. P. McCown, of the United States Army, and is given by Mr. Lawrence as an addition to the ornithology of the North in the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, V. p. 114 (1851), but with no account of its habits. Since that time, it has been again observed by Mr. Clark at several localities in Texas, and is known to be of frequent occurrence in the States of Mexico immediately south of the Rio Grande, and in other parts of the same country. 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:— [Illustration: Plate 25 The Brown-headed Creeper Picolaptes brunneicapillus (_La Fresnaye_)]