THE TREE-CREEPER. 171 



the wires into my greenhouse, where it was so nimble in dodging us, that a full 

 hour elapsed before it could be caught and placed in a large cage. In the evening 

 I found it asleep clinging to the wire netting, and in the morning it was dead. 

 Two or three years later I caught another, and turned it loose in an aviary sixteen 

 feet long, where it seemed perfectly at home at once, behaving quite naturally, 

 showing no alarm whatever, but examining the rockwork (then in the aviary) most 

 diligently, and extracting spiders from the various holes and crevices. Unhappily 

 I could not persuade this bird to eat anything but living insects, woodlice, and 

 spiders ; it would not look at soft food (of which there was plenty in the aviary) 

 but having devoured every spider, insect and woodlouse which it could find, it simply 

 starved itself to death : why a bird which, in winter, will join the Robins and 

 Sparrows round our houses to feed on bread-crumbs, and which is also said to eat 

 seeds and small fruits, should have refused to touch these articles of food, preferring 

 rather to die of inanition, is a mystery. Perhaps, though outwardly calm and 

 natural, this bird inwardly chafed at its captivity, and only living food had the 

 power to tempt it to eat. Anyway the conclusion to which my experience has led 

 me is If you would keep Wrens as pets, it is safest to rear them from the nest. 



FAMILY CERTHIID^. 



THIS group of birds is again referred to the Farina by Seebohm, who remarks 

 that " In their rounded wings, small bastard primary, scutellated tarsus, and 

 large feet with well developed hind toe, the species of this genus fCerthia) are 

 typical Parince:" yet, on the same page, he admits that "The Creepers are 

 somewhat aberrant members of the subfamily Parince" which seems a little 

 contradictory. 



It appears to me that, in his classification of birds, Seebohm allowed himself 

 to be too much influenced by the character of the eggs ; although the admission of 

 Accentor among the Tits was a distinct deviation from this tendency. Much as 

 one respects and admires a man who upholds his own views in opposition to the 

 opinion of a majority, one does not feel bound to follow his lead, unless he can 

 bring forward convincing evidence in support of those views. 



The Creepers differ from the Tits in their much longer bills with elongated 



