TRACHEOPHONES— TREE-CREEPER 985 



looping being prseclavicular in the former and postclavicvilar in the 

 latter. In both sexes of Cygnui^ huccinator, C. mnsicus, C. ameriranus 

 and C. hewidi the Trachea runs ventrally beneath the symphysis of 

 the furcula, which bends dorsally to permit its passage, to enter 

 the swollen keel, which in old birds it penetrates to the furthest 

 extremity,^ and thence returns, still keeping below the furcula, on 

 its way to the thorax. In all the other Swans tlie Trachea is 

 simple. Among the Cranes almost every degree of development 

 may be found, from Bnlearica where there are no convolutions at 

 all, to Anthropoides where the keel is hollowed into a cavity open at 

 the sides, to Grns americana and G. communis where it is penetrated 

 to its utmost extremity by the Trachea ; l)ut no part of the Trachea 

 passes ventrally over the furcula. Such a postclavicular loop exists 

 in Platalea leacorodia, but not in F. <(jaj(i, and in the male of Tantalus 

 ibis, but not that of T. loculator. For the thoracic, voice-producing 

 end of the Trachea see Syrinx (p. 937). 



TRACHEOPHONES (by some written Tracheophonm or Tracheo- 

 pJioni) Johannes Miiller's name (Abhandl. l\ Akad. Berlin, Phys. KL 

 1847, p. 367) for the second of his three grouj^s of Passerini, 

 having the trachea furnished with but one or two jiairs of vocal 

 muscles, and those lateral {rf. Syrinx, p. 940). 



TREE-CPtEEPER, one of the smallest of British birds, and, 

 regard being had to its requirements, one very generally distributed. 

 It is the Certhia familiaris of ornithology, and 

 remarkable for the stiffened shafts of its long 

 and pointed tail-feathers, aided by which, and 

 by its comparatively large feet, it climbs 

 nimbly in a succession of jerks the trunks or 

 branches of trees, invariably proceeding up- Teee-Creeper. (After 

 wards or outwards and generally in a spiral 

 direction, as it seeks the small insects that are hidden in the 

 bark and form its chief food. When, in the course of its search, 

 it nears the end of a branch or the top of a trunk, it flits to 

 another, always alighting lower down than the place it has left, 

 and so continues its work. 



Inconspicuous in colour, for its upper plumage is mostly of 

 various shades of brown mottled with white, h\xW and tawny, and 

 beneath it is a silvery white, the Tree-Creeper is far more common 

 than the incurious suppose ; but, attention once draAvn to it, it can 

 be frequently seen and at times heard, for though a shy singer 

 its song is loud and sweet. The nest is neat, generally placed in 

 a chink formed by a half-detached piece of bark, which secures it 



' In C. huccinator and C. mnsicus the return loop is vertical ; in C. betvicki 

 and apparently C. americanus it is horizontal. 



