‘RHE CREEPER 
timber, where its sober colouring most effectually tends 
to its concealment. Woodpecker-like, it runs about the 
trunks and larger branches, supporting its body with its 
stiff tail, and picking out its food from the chinks and 
cracks with its long, slender bill. It flies little whilst in 
quest of food, save to move from one tree to another, 
and will often remain about one large tree until almost 
every part has been examined. Sometimes a solitary 
Creeper will join a company of Titmice during autumn or 
winter, and whilst its companions pick up a living amongst 
the slender twigs it will search the trunk for its own fare, 
but flitting off in company in an undulating manner. 
There are many old orchards in Greater London where 
the ways of this charming little bird may be watched 
with ease. It lives perhaps exclusively on insects and 
larve. ‘The Creeper is not much of a songster, no more 
so than the Titmice, and its feeble call-note of weet is 
heard most frequently in the breeding season. It 1s 
solitary in its habits, seldom more than a pair being seen 
unless the brood is out, and very often but a single 
individual. It probably pairs for life, and begins nest- 
building for the first brood in April, for the second in 
June. A favourite site for its nest is in a crevice behind 
a piece of loose bark, but a hole in a tree is sometimes 
chosen, a cranny in a building or amongst thatch. The 
nest is made externally of twigs, lined with fine roots, 
strips of bark, moss, wool, and feathers. ‘The six or eight 
eggs are yellowish white, spotted and blotched with reddish 
brown of various shades and grey. ‘The old birds are secre- 
tive enough during the breeding period, and do little to 
betray the site of their nest, which may be placed in quite 
a frequented spot. 
The adult Creeper has the upper parts dark brown, palest 
on the rump and darkest on the head, streaked with 
rufous brown and palest buff; the wings are dark brown 
barred with pale brown, the coverts tipped with pale 
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