THE TRUE CREEPERS. 121 



Young. Much more mottled on the upper surface than the 

 adults, the central buff markings to the feathers very much 

 larger and occupying nearly the whole of the feather ; the 

 pattern of the wing as in the adult, the cross bands on the 

 quills all very strongly indicated; the under surface of the body 

 dull white, the feathers of the breast obscured by dusky-brown 

 tips. 



Range in Great Britain. Resident in nearly every part of the 

 British Islands, as far north as the Isle of Skye and Caithness, 

 and occurring as a. straggler in the Orkneys and Shetland Is- 

 lands. Mr. Ridgway considers that the British Tree-Creeper 

 is a different species from that inhabiting the continent of 

 Europe, and has named it Certhia britannica. He says that 

 the form of the British Islands is browner in colour, the wings 

 of a deeper tawny colour, and the under-parts duller. (Cf. 

 Ridgw., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v., p. 113 (1882). The con- 

 tinental bird is certainly greyer, the streaks ashy instead of 

 buff; the rump is not so conspicuously tawny in the foreign 

 specimens, but there is no difference in the colour of the under- 

 parts. Such is our conclusion after comparing a series of 

 skins in the British Museum, but the differences can hardly be 

 called specific, as French specimens are intermediate. 



Range outside the British Islands. Throughout the Palsearctic 

 Region, i.e., Europe and Asia north of the line of the Hima- 

 layas. Mr. Ridgway, however, in his paper above referred to, 

 recognises two races in Europe besides the one he calls C. 

 britannica, and, according to the opinions cf recent writers, 

 there are several races of the Common Creeper to be distin- 

 guished in the Palaearctic Region alone, to say nothing of the 

 American Creeper (C. americana\ which can scarcely be sepa- 

 rated from its European representative. The Himalayas and 

 the off-lying mountain ranges of the chain in Burma possess 

 six specks, these regions being very rich in Creepers, Tits, and 

 Nuthatches. The northern range of the European Certhia is 

 63 N. lat. in Scandinavia, 60 in Russia, and about 57 in 

 Siberia. It is found in Algeria to the south of the Mediter- 

 ranean, but not in those countries where no pine-forests 

 occur. 



Habits. Notwithstanding the name of familiaris which Lin- 

 naeus bestowed on the Creeper, it is by no means a familiar 



