512 BRITISH BIRDS. 



CERTHIA FAMILIARIS. 

 COMMON CREEPER. 



(PLATE 11.) 



Certlria certhia, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 603 (1760). 



Certhia familiaris, Linn. Sysi. Nat. i. p. 184 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum 



Latham, Gmelin, Naumann, Temminck, Gray, Bonaparte, Dec/land, Gerbe, 



Neivton, Dresser, &c. 



Certhia fusca, Barton, Fragm. Nat. Hist. Penn. p. 11 (1799). 

 Certhia americana, Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. and N. Amcr. p. 11 (1888)*. 



The unassuming little Creeper is one of the smallest of our British 

 birds. It is generally, though locally, distributed throughout the wooded 

 districts of Great Britain and Ireland, occasionally found in the Orkneys 

 and Shetland, but apparently absent from the Outer Hebrides and Western 

 Isles. It is found in all the Channel Islands, probably excepting Alderney. 

 It is a resident bird, but occasionally turns up at Heligoland on 

 migration; and its occurrences on the Orkneys and Shetlands are probably 

 those of Scandinavian birds driven westwards by excessive cold or gales. 



The Common Creeper may almost be considered a circumpolar bird, 



* The above is the synonymy of the typical or temperate form, which is the only one 

 found in our islands. The synonymy of the Arctic or pale form is as follows : 



CERTHIA FAMILIAEIS, var. SCANDULACA. 



Certhia scandulaca, Pallas, Zooyr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 432 (1826). 

 Certhia uattereri, Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. and N. Amer. p. 11 (1838). 

 Certhia costse, Bailly, Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. de Savoie, Jan. (1852). 

 Certhia hodgsoui, Brooks, Journ. As. Soc. Bent/, xli. pt. 2, p. 74 (1872). 



The synonymy of the tropical or rufous form is as follows : 



CEKTHIA FAMILJABIS, var. NIPALENSIS. 



Certhia nipalensis, Hodys.fale Blyih, Journ. As. Soc. Beny. xiv. p. 582 (1845). 



Certhia niexicana, Gloger, fide Reich. Handb. i. p. 266 (1851). 



Certhia mandelli, Brooks, Journ. As. Soc. Ben;/, xlii. pt. 2, p. 256 (1873). 



Hodgson never distinguished between C. nipalensis, C. discolor, and C. himalayana. 

 His types in the British Museum of C. nijpaJensu (no. 598) are some of them C. discolor 

 and others C. himalayana. I cannot find any drawing of a Certhia in his MSS. in the 

 British Museum ; but I have a copy (made by my friend Mr. Brooks) of a drawing in the 

 Hodgson MSS. in the possession of Mr. Hume, which undoubtedly represents C. discolor. 

 As, however, Hodgson appears never to have published his name, it cannot now be used 

 for either of the species with which he was acquainted, but must be applied to the third 

 species, which will stand a.s C. nipalensis , Blyth, Jerdou, Hume, &c., nee Hodgson nee 

 Brooks. 



