THE CREEPER. SOS 



Description Manners. 



THE CREEPER. 



THIS is a small bird, its weight being no 

 more than five drachms. The length of his fea- 

 thers and the manner of his ruffling them, give it, 

 however, an appearance much beyond its real 

 size. Its bill is long, slender, and much curved, 

 the upper mandible brown, the lower whitish; 

 the eyes are hazel; the head, neck, back, and 

 wing-coverts are of a dark brown, variegated 

 with streaks of a light hue ; the throat, breast, 

 and belly are of a silvery white; the rump tawny ; 

 the quills are dusky, edged with tawny, and 

 marked with bars of the same colour; the tips 

 are white ; above each eye a small dark line pas- 

 ses towards the neck, above which there is a line 

 of white; the tail is long, and consists of twelve 

 stiff feathers, of a tawny colour, pointed and 

 forked at the end ; the legs are short, and of a 

 brown colour; the claws are long, sharp, and 

 much hooked, which enable it to run with great 

 facility on all sides of small branches of trees in 

 quest of insects and their eggs, which constitute 

 its food. Although very common, it is not seen 

 without difficulty, from the ease with which 

 on the appearance of any one, it escapes to the 

 opposite side of the tree. It builds its nest early 

 in the spring in the hole of a tree. The female 

 lays from five to seven eggs, of an ash colour 

 marked at the end with spots of a deeper hue. 

 2 c 2 



