ing as it goes. A relatively large beak, and strikingly short tail, 
are features as conspicuous as is the coloration. Its flight is slow 
and undulating. 
Another little bird which, during the winter, associates with 
the titmice, is the tree-creeper. It is never seen on the wing, save 
when it is flitting from one tree to another, and then its course is 
obliquely downwards—from the upper branches of one tree to the 
base of another. This it proceeds to ascend immediately on alight- 
ing, by jerky leaps. Its coloration is soberness itself—mottled 
brown above and silvery white below. The tail, it is to be noted, 
is formed of stiff, pointed feathers, like those of the woodpecker, 
and, as in that bird, is used in climbing. 
There is scarcely a garden—save in such as are within the 
area of a big town—which, during the summer, is not haunted by 
a little grey and white bird, with a most characteristic flight— 
a sudden sally into the air to seize some insect, sometimes even 
white butterflies, and an instant return to the same perch. This 
is the spotted flycatcher. In Wales, Devonshire, Cumberland, 
and Westmorland, one may be fairly sure of meeting with the 
pied-flycatcher. He is, so to speak, a black and white edition of 
his relative, the spotted flycatcher—but the black areas in the 
female are represented by brown. There are, however, notable 
differences in the method of hunting, in the two species ; 
for the pied-flycatcher rarely returns to the same perch 
86 
