THE TREE-CREEPER 283 



bird except his diligence. As a rule he is sad and solitary, 

 except in the breeding season, when even the soberest of birds 

 remember to be glad 



"... And in the fire of spring 

 The winter garment of repentance fling." 



I have never yet seen the tree-creeper making love, but should 

 imagine that his wooing would be carried out on strictly business 

 lines, with a view to settlements and such like dull arrangements; 

 very different from the passionate rapture of the lapwing when he 

 hurls himself through the air and dashes to earth, missing destruction 

 by a hairbreadth ; nor could he be filled with the ecstasy of the 

 lark, who, beating his way heavenwards, pours forth his love as he 

 mounts, 



" Till the world is wrought 

 To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not." 



But it may be I do an injustice to the tree-creeper. Perhaps, 

 after all, the lady does not care to be wooed in any other than a 

 sober fashion, otherwise her lover would have to do it. Perhaps, for 

 all we know, he does do it On June 25, 1910, I saw three birds 

 playing a kind of hide and seek game round and round a tall oak 

 tree, finally only two were left ; and whether they were birds of the 

 year merely amusing themselves, or whether courting, I could not 

 tell ; it seemed late in the season for love-making. One would utter 

 his faint call-note and flutter his wings, making sundry rushes round 

 the tree at the same time ; the other would avoid these rushes either 

 by a similar dash in an opposite direction, or by pressing its body into 

 a crevice of the thick bark, with head and tail stretched straight out, 

 thus hiding itself completely, for the speckled back of the bird looked 

 like a mere continuation of the bark of the tree. 



The tree-creeper makes a somewhat elaborate nest, the building 

 of which usually takes several days, although both birds work hard 

 almost all day. Should you happen to see a few stray twigs of larch 



