TREE-CREEPER AT WORK 59 



the woods during the autumn and winter months, 

 will often be seen the Tree-Creeper. Starting at 

 the foot of a tree it runs up with jerks, uttering 

 every now and then a plaintive seens ; keeping to 

 the main branch it works up to the top, then flies 

 to the foot of the next. I have followed one the 

 whole length of a long row of orchard trees, and 

 only one or two of these were missed by this 

 persevering little worker. When the last tree 

 was reached, it flew to the next row and com- 

 menced working back again in the same order. 



When a tree is struck by lightning and not 

 destroyed, a large piece of bark is sometimes slit 

 down, and in time this gradually parts from the 

 tree to some extent. In the opening so formed, 

 the Tree-Creeper's nest will often be found, a 

 compact little structure composed of strips of bark 

 and warmly lined with finer materials. In the 

 New Forest we found one between a tree and 

 a haystack, the latter being built close to the tree, 

 and the nest was nothing like so neat as some I 

 have seen nearer home. 



There are some birds that seem to be becoming 

 scarcer each year in our suburban district, while 

 others seem to be taking their places and gradually 

 extending their range in the surrounding country. 

 One of the latter is the Hawfinch ; a few years 



