572 PASSERIFORMES : COEREBIDAE CHAP. 
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. 457), 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’ habitations. The three to 
nine eggs are ordinarily white with red 
and lilac spots; but in Climacteris the 
eround-colour is sometimes reddish, in Sa/- 
pornis the spots are blackish. The last-named fixes a cup-shaped 
fabric of leaves, bark, and cobwebs to some horizontal bough. 
Fam. XX XI. 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 with 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 South 
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. They probe the flowers in com- 
pany with Humming-birds, and probably suck the honey, while 
some forms dart after flies hke Flycatchers. Several have a fine 
voice, but the common note is a feeble “ quit-quit.”. The domed 
Fria. 1387.—Tree Creeper. 
Certhia familiaris. x 3%. 
