82 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



CREEPER, TREE. 



Description of Parent Birds. Length about 

 five inches. Bill rather long, curved downwards, 

 dark brown on the top, and dirty white, tinged with 

 yellow, underneath. Irides hazel. Crown dark 

 brown, spotted and streaked with pale brown. 

 Back of neck, back, and rump tawny-brown, mixed 

 with ash-grey. Wing-coverts brown, tipped with 

 greyish-yellow ; quills variegated with brown and 

 black, some of them tipped with light grey. Tail 

 tawny-brown, the feathers being strong in the shaft, 

 and, from their help to the bird in climbing and 

 holding on to the bark of trees, often worn quite 

 bare at the ends. Chin, throat, breast, and belly 

 greyish- white, inclining to rusty reddish-white on 

 the flanks and vent. Legs, toes, and claws, which 

 are very long, light brown. 



The female is similar in size and colour to the 

 male. 



Situation and Locality. In a hole in a tree ; 

 behind a loose piece of bark still clinging to a 

 decayed tree ; amongst piles of stacked timber ; in 

 niches and crevices of buildings, and behind half- 

 detached pieces of plaster. The one in our illus- 

 tration was placed behind a sound piece of the 

 outer shell of a decayed pollard. The bird could 

 either slip off from the front, or up a kind of 

 chimney, having its exit just under the face of the 

 inquisitive onlooker. In nearly all well-wooded 

 districts throughout the British Isles. 



Materials. Fine twigs, dead grass, sometimes 

 little chips of decayed wood, wool, moss, feathers, 

 and rabbits' down. 



Eggs. Six to nine, white, spotted and speckled 

 with reddish-brown and sometimes dullish purple 



