CREEPER 



TREE CREEPER COMMON CREEPER TREE CLIMBER. 



PLATE LIL FIGURE II. 

 Certhia familiaris, . . . PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



THE common Tree Creeper nests at the end of April, 

 and a second brood is very generally reared the same 

 year, but not, it seems to be thought, in the same nest. 



The nest is composed of grass, straw, fibres of roots, 

 and twigs, bits of bark, spiders' webs, and the cocoons of 

 chrysalides, lined with feathers, and almost invariably of 

 fine strips of the inside of the bark of the birch. It is 

 placed either in a hole or some crevice of the bark of a 

 tree, the willow, as most affording such as it requires, being 

 preferred, or even between two stems, and has been found 

 in the interstice afforded by two palings : a hole previously 

 tenanted by a Titmouse or other small bird is sometimes 

 resorted to. Sir William Jardine mentions one built in a 

 a peatstack ; and the space behind the loose plaster of a 

 shed is often used. 



The eggs, eight or nine in the first brood, laid in April, 

 and four or five in the second, are white, with a few red 

 spots all over, or only at the thicker end. Both birds sit on 

 them by turns. 



