STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Usually inhabits open, mature, dry, deciduous forests without thick brush and tangles, preferring areas with an abundance of fallen leaves, logs, and rocks. Occasionally inhabits wet or swampy forests; in the North, inhabits jack pine and spruce forests.
NEST: Locates nest in a slight depression in the ground. Uses almost any available vegetation to construct an arched nest resembling a dutch oven, with the entrance hole at or near ground level.
FOOD: Gleans invertebrate food from the surface of the litter on the forest floor, including insects, small snails, slugs, myriapods, earthworms, and spiders.
REFERENCES: DeGraff et al. 1980, Griscom and Sprunt 1979, Hann 1937, Stenger 1958, Vickery in Farrand 1983c.