TREECREEPER. 471 



New World, but nearly all the more recent authorities concur 

 in regarding the two species of Treecreepers found in 

 America as distinct. One, the Certhia mexicana, clearly^ is 

 so, but the other, C. americana, differs little from our own 

 bird, though it would seem to be smaller, with a somewhat 

 shorter bill, a comparatively longer tail, and, except on the 

 rump, it has much less of the rusty tinge that pervades the 

 upper parts of C. familiaris, which may be thus described. 



The bill has the upper mandible dark brown, the lower 

 pale brownish-yellow : the irides are hazel : over the eye a 

 light-coloured streak ; head above dark brown, the middle of 

 each feather being pale wood-brown ; neck and back yellowish- 

 brown, streaked with greyish-white ; rump reddish- tawny ; 

 wing-coverts brown, tipped with dull white or tawny ; wing- 

 quills barred with pale brown and greyish-black, and all but 

 the first five or six tipped with dull white ; tail-feathers red- 

 dish-brown, with obsolete bars of a darker shade, their shafts 

 pale yellowish-brown ; chin, throat, breast and belly, silvery- 

 white ; flanks and vent generally tinged with rufous : legs, 

 toes and claws, light brown. 



The whole length is rather more than five inches. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing, two inches and three- 

 eighths. 



A second European species, as above said, has been often 

 asserted to exist, but its distinctness may well be questioned. 

 It has been variously designated Certhia natter eri, C. costcv 

 and C. brachydactyla. In the Himalayas there are however 

 three very distinct species : C. discolor, from Sikhim, 

 though in locality furthest removed, seems in some respects 

 to make the nearest approach to our own, from which it 

 differs by its conspicuously shorter bill and longer tail ; 

 C. nipalensis, with well-defined tawny-white spots, especially 

 on the head; and C. himalayana, from the north-western 

 parts of the range, and easily distinguished by its strongly 

 barred tail and tertials. 



The genus Certhia since its establishment has been uni- 

 versally recognized, though many of the birds assigned to it 

 by older authors have been most judiciously removed thence, 



