NATURE 



\May I, 1879 



into which " popular " naturalists fall. Here is a passage 

 which we extract, since it relates to a species now con- 

 sidered to be common to Europe and North America — 

 the Tree-Creeper {Certhia familiaris) — and its accuracy 

 will be recognised by all who have watched the bird in 

 this country : — 



" The leading trait of the Brown Creeper is its extra- 

 ordinary industry — the ' incomparable assiduity,' as it has 

 been well styled, with which it works for a living. Like 

 all good workers, the creeper makes no fuss about it, but 

 just sticks to it. So quietly, yet with such celerity, does 

 it go about its business that it scarcely seems to be at 

 work, but rather to be rambling in an aimless way about 

 the trunks of trees, or at most only caring to see how fast 

 it can scramble up to the top. During all this time, 

 however, the bird is on the alert in the search for insects, 

 which it extracts from their lurking-places with such 

 dexterity that its progress is scarcely arrested for a 

 moment ; and the number of these minute creatures 

 yearly destroyed is simply incalculable. The creeper is 

 strongly attached to the trunks of large trees, being 

 seldom seen foraging on even the larger branches ; and 

 it has a great fancy for travelling upward. These two 

 traits combined result in its marked habit of beginning 

 its curious search for insects near the bottom of a tree, 

 and ascending with jerks in a straight or spiral line to the 

 top. Then, if it likes the tree, and thinks it a good place 

 to stay a while longer in, the bird launches itself into the 

 air, and drops down on wing, to begin another ascent, in 

 preference to scrambling down again, as a woodpecker or 

 nuthatch would do. The easy, gliding motion with which 

 it climbs has deceived one writer into stating that the 

 creeper does not hop along like a woodpecker ; but, in 

 fact, the movement is exactly the same in both cases. 

 One of the English writers (Barrington, Zool. 2nd ser. 

 p. 3998) describes, however, something peculiar in the 

 position of the feet during the act of climbing : — These, 

 he says, are not held parallel with each other, and near 

 together, under the belly, but widely straddled, and 

 thrown so far forward as to form with the end of the tail 

 a surprisingly broad-based isosceles triangle. So nimble 

 is the bird, and such a sly way has it of eluding observa- 

 tion by turning in the opposite direction to that in which 

 a person moves to look after it, thus continually inter- 

 posing the trunk of the tree in the line of vision, that it is 

 no wonder the way it holds its feet long remained unascer- 

 tained. Many things conspire to screen the queer little 

 bird from any but the most patient and closest scrutiny 

 during its ordinary vocations ; and so nearly do its 

 colours correspond with the tints of the bark that it is 

 likely to be overlooked altogether. But its habits are so 

 methodical and undeviating that when one has learned 

 them there is no difficulty. If we see a creeper alight at 

 the base of a tree on the side away from us, we have only 

 to stand still, and keep a sharp look-out for it higher up ; 

 in a few moments, its spiral twisting will bring it round 

 to our side ; the chief point is to look high enough up, for 

 it is surprising how rapidly the bird ascends. It generally 

 makes the whole journey before dropping on wing to the 

 base of the tree again, or making off to another; some- 

 times, however, the tree seems to be not to its liking, 

 when, as if actuated by a sudden impulse, it abandons an 

 unprofitable search, and flies to a more promising feeding 

 ^ound." 



This is a very fair sample of the author's style in treat- 

 ing of birds' habits, but many extracts would be needed 

 to show the enormous pains he has taken with the more 

 scientific part of the book. The array of references pre- 

 fixed to the account of each species is almost appalling, 

 but when we come to look into them we find these cita- 

 tions are not printed merely for the sake of giving an 



exhaustive list, but that there is a sufficient purpose for 

 the insertion of almost each of them. In like manner we 

 can praise the care bestowed on the technical characters 

 of the several species, so far as we have been able to test 

 them, for in diagnosis, that touchstone of a descriptive 

 biologist, Dr. Coues especially shines, as indeed one 

 expect might from the author of the "Key to North 

 American Birds." 



There is, however, one thing in this volume that we 

 must say has excited our wonder, and must, we suspect, 

 have deeply disturbed the minds of more than one natu- 

 ralist who has read it. Dr. Coues, fully conscious of the 

 risk he is running, cannot bring himself to reject the 

 notion of Swallows and other birds plunging into the 

 water in autumn and passing the winter in deep slumber ! 

 He admits that " it is as much as a virtuous ornitholo- 

 gist's name is worth to whisper hibernation, torpidity, 

 and mud!"; but he adds further on, " It is not permitted 

 to us, in the present aspect of the case, to rule out the 

 evidence " in favour of what, for our own part, we must 

 unhesitatingly call an exploded fable. It is certainly as 

 much as a virtuous reviewer can do to treat this matter 

 calmly. Yet we hold ourselves a better judge of evi- 

 dence than Dr. Coues, and in spite of this singular 

 aberration we draw our conclusion from the rest of his 

 work that his reputation for sanity need not be thereby 

 impugned. But he certainly overstates his case when he 

 says that " the testimony, so far from ceasing with the 

 irresponsible infancy of science, is reiterated to-day with 

 the full voice of science, in terms that have not been suc- 

 cessfully refuted." Now what is a successful refutation 

 to one man, we all know, is not necessarily so to another. 

 Are there not virtuous gentlemen who still insist on 

 having proved the flatness of the earth, the squaring of 

 the circle, and various geometrical impossibilities, and 

 does not their very existence show that their testimony 

 has not been " successfully refuted " ? Nothing short of 

 a miracle will convince some people, and we say this in 

 view of both believers and unbelievers in the torpidity of 

 birds. From whom is " the full voice of science " to be 

 heard if not from scientific men, and where is the scientific 

 man of to-day (Dr. Coues himself excepted) whose testi- 

 mony reiterates that of Achaid, Dexter, Pollock, Kalm, 

 Forster, and the rest of those named in our author's excel- 

 lent bibliography of the subject ? We may have persons of I 

 intelligence and veracity, of respectability and honour,! 

 but we find not of late years one scientific man who can 

 vouch for any statement of the kind on his own authority. 

 It would be idle, however, to pursue the subject further j j 

 we should like to know, nevertheless, whether Dr. Coues | 

 refuses to reject the testimony as to the existence of 

 Were-wolves, which seems to be on a par with, or even 

 stronger than that in regard to, the torpidity of birds, and 

 we shall only add that we think he is indeed " greatly 

 mistaken" in his view that the Chimney-Swift {Chatura 

 pelagica) "is not recorded as occurring anywhere beyond 

 the United States in winter." If he will refer to a certain 

 " Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium," published not 

 long since, he will find this species entered as occurring 

 in Mexico, and we think we " could give reasons for the 

 supposition" that it winters regularly in that country 

 and others lying further to the south, instead of " hiber- 

 nating in hollow trees" in the United States, so that what- 



