280 THE TREE-CREEPER 



THE TKEE-CREEPER 

 [E. L. TURNER] 



The tree-creeper is not unlike John Bunyan's "Man with the 

 Muck-rake." His mind never seems to rise above the daily sordid 

 struggle after the things of the earth. Essentially a bird of the woods 

 and plantations, he seldom leaves them for the sunlit fields or open 

 sky, but spends the days monotonously ascending one tree after 

 another in search of food. No doubt these regular habits are very 

 praiseworthy, and such as would ensure success in any undertaking, 

 if the tree-creeper were human ; but one cannot help feeling that he 

 misses a good deal of the joy of living by such strict attention 

 to business. 



" Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." 



Probably the bird is not conscious of anything amiss : those who 

 worship the " Goddess of Getting On " seem well content with their 

 religion, and rather glory in it ; but to my mind, the rough and tumble 

 life of the quarrelsome house-sparrow is preferable to the Ixion-like 

 monotony of the tree-creeper's. 



He is not an uncommon bird, but being soberly clad often 

 escapes observation. The real beauty of the delicately mottled 

 plumage can only be realised when viewed through a good pair of 

 field glasses; but the exquisite silvery white gleam of the under 

 parts often betrays his presence when slipping round to the far side 

 of a tree, away from the observer. 



The way in which the tree-creeper procures his food is interesting. 

 Generally beginning at the foot of a tree, he ascends by a series of 

 almost imperceptible Jwps, not always spirally, as some writers affirm, 

 but by a kind of zig-zag method peculiarly his own ; frequently, how- 

 ever, he scarcely deviates by a hairbreadth from a directly vertical 



