



THE TREE CREEPER. 239 



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 

 a great moth from tree to tree, uttering a faint tril- 

 ling sound as it fixes on their boles, running round 

 them in a spiral direction, when with repeated 

 wriggles having gained the summit, it darts to an- 

 other, and commences again ; and so intent is it on 

 the object of pursuit, and unsuspicious of harm, 

 that I have seen it swept from the tree with a stick. 

 Mr. Pennant thinks that it retires into milder re- 

 gions upon the advance of winter ; but many cer- 

 tainly remain with us. In the early part of the spring, 

 when food is comparatively scarce in the woods, it 

 will frequent the mossy trees in our orchards and 

 gardens; but after a very short examination of 

 them, is away to its usual retirements, seeking no 

 familiarity with us, notwithstanding the social epi- 

 thet it has obtained. This little creature is ob- 

 served in no great numbers ; yet its actions and 

 manners seem to be such as would tend to its increase. 

 The female lays eight or nine eggs : it roosts se- 

 curely in the holes of large trees ; and from its 

 manner of feeding, and the places it inhabits, it can 



