THE TREE CREEPER. 243 



capture, commence feeding on its canary or hemp- 

 seed, food it could never have tasted before, nibble 

 his sugar in the wires like an enjoyment it had 

 been accustomed to, frisk round its cage, and dress 

 its plumage, without manifesting the least apparent 

 regret for the loss of companions or of liberty. 

 Harmless to the labours or the prospects of us 

 lords of the creation, as so many of our small birds 

 are, we have none less chargeable with the com- 

 mission of injury than the goldfinch ; yet its 

 blameless, innocent life does not exempt it from 

 harm. Its beauty, its melody, and its early recon- 

 ciliation to confinement, rendering it a desirable 

 companion, it is captured to cheer us with its 

 manners and its voice, in airs and regions very dif- 

 ferent from its native thistly downs, and apple- 

 blossom bowers. 



The tree creeper (certhia familiaris) is as little 

 observed as any common bird we possess. A re- 

 tired inhabitant of woods and groves, and not in 

 any manner conspicuous for voice or plumage, it 

 passes its days with us, creating scarcely any notice 

 or attention. Its small size, and the manner in 

 which it procures its food, both tend to secrete him 

 from sight. It feeds entirely on small insects, 

 which it seeks between the crevices in the bark of 

 trees, or under the mosses and lichens that invest 

 their limbs. In these pursuits its actions are more 

 like those of a mouse than of a bird, darting like 



