CERTHIA. 431 



course, only found in heavily-forested areas but it does not keep 

 entirely to the interior of forest, wandering freely itito the more 

 open country wherever there are large trees forming suitable 

 hunting-ground-i. They are intensely active, restless little birds, 

 never still for a minute, scuttHng hither and thither, now racing 

 over the trunk of the tree, now scrambling along the under 

 surface of one of the smaller boughs. They, unHke the Wood- 

 peckers and Barbets, are just as fond of running down as running 

 up the trunks of trees, but their general method is to work a tree 

 upwards before taking flight to the next. Their ordinary note is 

 a very feeble little squeak, which develops into a louder, fuller 

 series of notes in the breeding season. 

 They are entirely insectivorous. 



(^45) Certhia himalayana taeniura.* 



The Turkestan Tbee-Creeper. 

 Certhia tceniura Severtz., Turk. Jevotn., p. 1.38 (187;i) (Turkestan). 



Vernacular names. None recorded. 



Description. This race differs from the preceding bird in being 

 much paler, more brown, less black ; the under parts, except the 

 chin and throat, are all smoky-brown with no tinge of fulvous. 



Colours of soft parts as in the Himalayan Tree-Creeper. 



Measurements. Wing 65 to 73 mm. ; tail about 52 to 65 mm. ; 

 tarsus about 18 mm. ; culmen about 18 to 21 mm. Blanford 

 remarks that heniura has a much longer bill than Idmalayuna ; the 

 British Museum series does not confirm this. 



Distribution. Turkestan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Gil<^it, 

 jS^'orth and Central Kashmir, Chitral, Karam Valley, etc. 



Nidification. The Turkestan Tree-Creeper is found breeding 

 between 5,000 and 12,000 feet over all the mountains of extreme 

 North- West India. Whitehead found it breeding in some numbers 

 in the Safed Koh up to 9,0U0 feet and in North Kashmir it 

 breeds in great numbers up to 10,000 feet. The nest differs in 

 no way from that of the Himalayan Tree-Creeper and the ego-s 

 cannot be distinguished from those of that bird. Forty eggs 

 average 15-0 x 11"9 mm. and the extremes of lengtii and breadth 

 are 17"5 X 12-3 unn. and 14-9 X 11-3 mm. 



It breeds later than the preceding bird, most eggs being laid 

 during the first week in June or the last few days of May. 



* Meiiiertzhagen has recently separated auotlier form as iutermediate 

 between hhnalaijana and tceniura under the name of miles (Bull. B. O. C. xlii 

 June, 1922). It is true that the birds from Central Kashmir and N.W. India 

 are so;ne\vhat iutermediate between the two but tiie great majority seem to nie 

 to be easily referable to one or the other race and a third race appears to be 

 unnecessary, lor on the dividing linos of all subspecies intermediate birds must 

 occur. Meinert/.hagen is wrong in crediting tceiiiura with a longer culmen 

 thau hinialaijuna. 



