THE TREE-CREEPER 285 



nest, however, and go farther afield, and when able to fend for 

 themselves are cast adrift by the parents. For, unlike the tits, 

 tree-creepers do not keep together in family parties during autumn 

 and winter ; I have seldom seen more than two or three in one spot 

 after July. Individuals, however, may occasionally be seen through- 

 out the winter consorting and hunting with tits and goldcrests. 



When the snow has drifted high against the exposed side of a 

 tree, a creeper hunting silently up the other looks a dingy little bird, 

 the breast feathers which gleamed so silvery white in the spring 

 sunshine look extremely dirty against the whiteness of driven snow, 

 and, in fact, they are very dirty owing to constant pressure against 

 the bark, on which there is always a great collection of atmospheric 

 debris. I think these birds must suffer considerably during a pro- 

 longed spell of cold. Their slender rapier-like bills and retiring 

 habits, so different from the hard-headed, cheerful pushfulness of 

 the tits, must result in a kind of "genteel poverty," the hardest to 

 bear and most fatal of all forms of want. I missed several pairs from 

 their usual haunts in the spring of 1909, and fear they must have 

 succumbed to the unusual weather conditions which prevailed 

 throughout the early spring. 



