CREEPERS. 75 



tree to tree, our little gleaner seems to observe 

 a good deal of regularity in his proceedings ; for 

 I have almost always observed that he alights on 

 the trunk near the root of the tree, and directs 

 his course, with great nimbleness, upwards to the 

 higher branches, sometimes spirally, often in a 

 direct line, moving rapidly and uniformly along, 

 with his tail bent to the tree, and not in the 

 hopping manner of the Woodpecker, whom he 

 far surpasses in dexterity of climbing, running 

 along the lower side of the horizontal branches 

 with surprising ease. If any person be near when 

 he alights, he is sure to keep the opposite side of 

 the tree, moving round as he moves, so as to pre- 

 vent him from getting more than a transient 

 glimpse of him. The best method of outwitting 

 him, if you are alone, is, as soon as he alights 

 and disappears behind the trunk, to take your 

 stand behind an adjoining one, and keep a sharp 

 look-out twenty or thirty feet up the body of the 

 tree he is upon, for he generally mounts very 

 regularly to a considerable height, examining the 

 whole way as he advances. In a minute or two, 

 hearing all still, he will make his appearance on 

 one side or other of the tree, and give you an 

 opportunity of observing him.'* 



The Creeper builds early in spring : it selects, for 

 this purpose, some rent or cleft in a tree, where 

 a branch has been broken off, or where a hole has 

 been chiseled by a woodpecker ; Sir William Jar- 

 dine has recorded a case in which a pair built in 

 a stack of peat dried for fuel, and he thinks that 

 holes in walls are sometimes chosen. The nest is 

 composed of dried grass, moss, fibres of slender 

 roots, and feathers, a large quantity of these mate- 



