108 



FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



the bird's mode of life as the bill of the avoset al- 

 ready described. 



Head of the Shearwater (Ehyncops nigra). 



Another genus of birds whose bill is defective, 

 according to Buffon, may be found in the creepers 

 (erthia)i which, though " living upon the same in- 

 sects as the woodpeckers, the nuthatches, and the tits, 

 cannot, from the defect of the bill, extract the insects 

 lodged under the bark, and which therefore follow 

 those birds, making them their providers and dex- 

 terously snatching the little prey*." On the contrary, 

 whoever looks at the bill of our common creeper 

 (Certhia familiar is) must at once perceive that its 

 form is admirably adapted for searching for insects in 

 the crevices of trees, being in fact curved in the same 

 way as the beetle forceps used by insect collectors on 

 the Continent for the same purpose^. It is more so 

 indeed than the bill of the tits, which however is 

 employed in a different way, being strong enough to 

 enable the bird to chisel out a hole in bark or soft 

 wood, though the creeper is no doubt equally suc- 



* Oiseaux, Art. Les Grimpereaux. 

 f See Insect Miscell. p. 373, fig. a. 



