108 



CEEEPER. 



Y GREPIANOG, OP THE ANCIENT BRITISH. 



TREE CREEPER. COMMON CREEPER. FAMILIAR CREEPER. TREE CLIMBER. 



PLATE LII. PIG. II. 



Certhia familiar is, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



NIDIPICATION commences in March, and a second brood is very 

 frequently reared the same year, but not, it seems to be thought, in 

 the same nest. 



The nest is composed of grass, straws, fibres of roots, and twigs, 

 bits of bark, spiders' webs, and the cocoons of chrysalides, lined with 

 the latter and feathers. 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. 



The eggs, eight or nine at the former brood, laid in April, and four 

 or five at the second, are white, with a few red spots all over, or only 

 at the thicker end. They are hatched in thirteen days, and both birds 

 sit on them by turns. 



