94 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS, 
dear little bird is the Wryneck, with his cheery spring-announcmg 
cry. We willingly pardon its want of melody for its associations. 
The marvellous rapidity with which its tongue is darted out and 
retracted, enabling it by the aid of the glutinous secretion with 
which its end is furnished to secure an Ant at every action, is 
highly interesting as illustrating another of the wonderful and 
beautiful adaptations provided by the Divine Artificer of all. 
The Wryneck makes scarcely any nest (if any), but lays its eggs 
on the fragments of decayed wood which line a hole in a tree. 
They are from six to ten in number, and white and glossy, and 
about the same size as those of the Barred Wood-pecker. The 
‘ old bird is singularly unwilling to leave her eggs under any 
intrusion, and tries by such means as hissing sharply, elevating 
her crest and contorting her neck, to intimidate or deter the 
intruder. 
IT.—CERTHIAD &. 
130. CREEPER—(Certhia familiaris). 
Tree-creeper, Tree-climber.—A_ shy, gentle-seeming little bird, 
shunning observation, and, with the rest of its neighbours in our 
catalogue, possessing a singular facility of quietly and rapidly 
shifting its place on the trunk or limb of a tree, so as always to 
interpose an efficient screen between its own minute body and 
the eye of any passer-by. Its claws, sharp and long and curved, 
aided by its long and pointed tail-feathers, are its chief machinery 
in these facile motions. It builds its nest, generally speaking, in 
a hole in a tree, with only a very minute aperture. Sometimes, 
though I think rarely, the nest is outside the tree, but screened 
from observation by some casual dislodgement of the bark, or in 
some similar way. It is made of dry grass, small twigs, shreds 
of moss, with a lining of feathers. It is very hard to distinguish 
