THE CREEPERS. 



Family 

 CERTHIID.E. 



40 • British Biids. 



The Creepers are truly insectivorous birds and expert climbers 

 on rocks and trees, feeding on i\n\ insects which the_y discover 

 in such situations. The family is almost entirely a northern 

 one, being distributed over the temperate portions of the Old and 

 New Worlds, rangmg in the west to Central America, and in the east to the 

 Himalayas, being sparsely replaced by allied genera in the Indian Peninsula, Africa 

 and Australia. The true Creepers have a stiffened and pointed tail like that of the 

 Woodpeckers, but there are many soft-tailed species, just as there are the sott- 

 tailed Wrynecks (lynx), amongst the Woodpeckers. One of the most conspicuous 

 of the soft-tailed Creepers is the following : — 



The \Vall-Crp:epf.r \TicIiodroiiia imirdria}. 

 This bird has occurred in Norfolk and in Lanca- 

 shire, while a third has been recently recorded from 

 Sussex. Mr. Howard Saunders has pointed out 

 that the species occasionally visits Normandy, so 

 that its occurrence in the British Islands may now 

 and then be expected. It is a bird easily recognis- 

 able on account of the crimson in the wmgs. As in 

 other Creepers, the bill is long, slender, and curved. 

 The general colour of the Wall-Creeper is a delicate 

 blue-grey, and the wmgs and tail are black, with a 

 conspicuous white spot on the outer primaries, 

 verv much in evidence when the bird is flying; the 

 tail is likewise tipped with white spots. In 

 summer the throat is black, but in winter it is 

 white. 



The Wall-Creeper inhabits the mountain ranges 

 of Southern P^^urope. North-east Africa, Central 

 Asia, and the Himalayas as far as China. It has 

 a peculiar flight, like that of a Butterfly, and climbs 

 up rocks and buildings with a sidling crab-like motion, flicking its wings open rapidly, 

 and exhibiting their beautiful crimson colour with every movement. The nest is 

 placed in crevices of rocks, and is made of moss and grass, with a mass of hair, wool 

 and feathers compacted together, and is lined with wool and hair. The eggs are from 

 three to five in number, pure white, sparsely spotted with tiny black or reddish- 

 brown dots. 



The Tree-Creeper [Ccrthta fauiiUans). This is a small bird with a curved 

 bill and a peculiar tail, the feathers of which are stiffened and pointed, serving the 

 same purpose as the rigid tail of the Woodpeckers, as the bird climbs up the trunk of 

 a tree or runs along the branches. The Tree-Creeper of Great Britain has been 

 separated as a distinct race by Mr. Ridgway, and called Certliia britannica, and 





5 



The Wai,i,-Cri;ei>er. 



