572 



TASSERIFORMES : COEREBIDAE 



the food consists of insects and their larvae, ants, and spiders. 

 Beginning at the bottom of a trunk the birds. work actively but 

 jerkily upwards in zigzags or spirals, flitting 

 from the higher branches to the base of 

 another tree ; sometimes, however, they 

 take protracted, undulating flights, or ac- 

 company flocks of Tits in winter. Certhia 

 uses the rigid rectrices as Woodpeckers do 

 (p. 45 7), though the soft-tailed forms also 

 climb well, while Climacteris is exceptional 

 in spending much time hopping or shuffling 

 along the ground. Seeds of conifers occa- 

 sionally vary the diet. The nest, composed 

 of twigs, with the addition of grass or moss, 

 and lined with bast, hair, wool, or feathers, 

 is placed behind loose bark, under tiles, 

 in crevices of trees or walls, in piles of 

 bricks, hollow branches, or even the base 

 of large birds' liabitations. The three to 

 nine eggs are ordinarily white with red 

 and lilac spots ; but in Climacteris the 

 ground-colour is sometimes reddish, in Sal- 

 pornis the spots are blackish. The last-named fixes a cup-shaped 

 fabric of leaves, bark, and cobwebs to some horizontal bough. 



Fam. XXXI. Coerebidae. — The Quit-quits have the extensible 

 tongue bifid, and frayed out terminally. The bill may be conical, 

 but is usually slender, with a notch and sometimes witli rictal 

 bristles, while the long maxilla is hooked in Diglossa and Digloss- 

 opis ; the metatarsi, wings, and tail are moderate, the last being 

 sometimes forked. These small, active, and restless birds fre- 

 quent bushy places and the outskirts of forests, from Soutli 

 Florida to the Bolivian Andes and South-East Brazil, several 

 species being peculiar to the Antilles, and Certhidea to the 

 Galapagos. Though companies are seldom formed, the flight 

 and habits are Tit-like, and individuals are often seen hopping 

 about or clinging to the branches in search of the insects which,- 

 with fruit, form the usual food. Tliey probe the flowers in com- 

 pany with Humming-birds, and probably suck the honey, while 

 some forms dart after flies like Flycatchers. Several have a fine 

 voice, but the common note is a feeble " quit-quit." The domed 



Fig. 137.— Tree Creeper. 

 Certhia fiuiiUiaris. x ySj-. 



