Ill 



CHAPTER IX. 



CREEPERS WRENS, HOOPOES, AND NUTHATCHES. 



THE order of birds called Reptatrices, or Creepers, com- 

 prehends several natural groups, of two of which only 

 have we representatives in Britain. Of the Certhince or Tree 

 Creepers, but one species occurs in this country; this is the 

 BROWN TREE CREEPER (Certhia familiaris), sometimes called 

 the Tree Spider, or Brown Woodpecker. It is permanently 

 resident in the wooded parts of England, but is nowhere 

 plentiful ; it has, perhaps, with the exception of the Crested 

 Wren, the smallest body of any British bird ; the plumage is 

 mostly brown of various shades, being very dark on the 

 upper part of the head, yellowish on the neck and back, and 

 reddish on the rump ; many of the feathers have white 

 in the middle, which gives a mottled appearance to the 

 whole, and the wings have a transverse whitish band ; the 

 under parts of the body are silvery white, or grey ; the 

 bill is very slender, and considerably curved ; the tongue, 

 like that of the Woodpecker, has a horny point ; the claws 

 are long, curved and sharp, and are assisted in the operation 

 of climbing and clinging by twelve elongated and stiff 

 tail feathers. The Tree Creepers pair in April, and about 

 the beginning of May begin to construct a nest of withered 

 stalks and blades of grass, moss, fibrous roots, &c., in some 

 hole in a tree, or hollow of a rock or chalk-bank ; it is 

 lined with feathers, and has in it from five to seven eggs of 

 a regular ovate form, glossy white, sprinkled with dots and 

 patches of brownish red, often disposed in a broad belt near 

 the larger end. The female bird is fed by the male while 

 sitting ; the young are abroad by the middle of June ; and 

 it appears likely that there is a second brood. 

 Macgillivray gives us this picture of the habits of the bird : 



At this season (winter), should you fall in with a flock of Reguli 

 and Pari (Gold-crests and Tits), you may be pretty well assured 



