Ornithology of the Var ^c. ^77 



not far from Valescure^ but I had not heard of this quaint 

 ceremony when I was in the Var. 



Wall-Creeper. Tichodroma muraria. 



P. Roux, Orn. Prov. p. 366 ; Richesses Orn. p. 299. 



How cleverly does the " Echelette " climb the rocks, pro- 

 bably making a lateral use of the hind toe. The impetus 

 necessary for each jump is given, Mr. Moggridge thinks, 

 by shortening in some way the tendon of that toe, thus 

 naturally causing it to approach the three anterior, and these 

 are the instruments o£ attachment (see Ibis, 1863, p. 161). 

 The same jumping power would seem to be possessed by 

 ■ Woodpeckers *. The squat body of the Tichodroma reminds 

 one of a Nuthatch. 



It is, in fact, a Rock-Nuthatch with the bill of a Creeper, 

 the more feeble flight not being sustained and having little 

 power. One would not deem Tichodroma capable of any 

 great migrations ; yet its very feebleness would make it all 

 the more at the mercy of the wind, and this accounts for its 

 having been blown to England three times and to Alderney 

 once {Canon Tristram). It is of periodic occurrence in 

 Sarthe {Gentil), and has been often obtained in Indre 

 [Martin) ; while Gadeau de Kerville gives occurrences in 

 Normandy, three of them within seventy miles of Beachy 

 Head. The limits of its regular migrations, however, show a 

 very contracted range — lat. 31° to lat. 48° would more than 

 comprise them. But one species of Tichodroma is recog- 

 nised in ' The Catalogue of Birds ' (viii. p. 333), and it 

 certainly cannot be very common in Provence, as we only 

 met with it in the Gorge du Loup ; but Lord Lilford gives 

 Ollioule, near Toulon, as another locality for it, and Canon 

 Tristram met with it at Cassis. 



* My fatlier remarked on a pair of Picus major, confined in a large wire 

 cage with a horizontal top, which came under his observation, that 

 they frequently traversed the top of the cage with their backs down- 

 wards, and in doing so they constantly hopped, bacJc downwards, 

 leaving go of the wires with both feet at once, and regaining their hold 

 by some muscular action without the aid of their wings. 



SER. VIII. VOL. I, 2 C 



