70 CREEPER. 



one tree to another, and seldom on the ground. In winter, 

 'when the hoar-frost is chill,' they come to farm-yards and 

 other out-buildings, in search of any food which such less- 

 exposed situations may have caused to be left in their way. 

 They are of most diligently active and industrious habits, 

 being rarely indeed to be seen, from any cause, in an attitude 

 of rest. Their progress is only upwards on the trees, aided 

 by the rest afforded by their deflected tails, or underneath or 

 on the horizontal branches, and performed with great celerity 

 by a series of impulses, the outline of their general contour, 

 contributed by their arched bill, back, and tail, assuming 

 almost the form of a segment of a circle. 



Their flight is undulated, and generally short a journey 

 from tree to tree, alighting at the base, and nimbly wimiing 

 their way to the top, when the like course is again and 

 again repeated. 



The food of this species consists, for the most part, of 

 small beetles and other insects, spiders and caterpillars, which, 

 with its long and slender curved beak, it extracts from 

 fissures in the bark of trees, as well as at times from those 

 of old fences and other wooden buildings; and it also eats 

 seeds. 



The note of the Creeper resembles the word 'tree tree,' 

 quickly and shrilly repeated. It attracts your attention, 

 being evidently produced by a very tiny throat. 



Nidification commences in March, and a second brood is 

 very frequently reared the same year, but not, it seems to 

 be thought, in the same nest. 



The nest is composed of grass, straws, fibres of roots, and 

 twigs, bits of bark, spiders' webs, and the cocoons of chrysa- 

 lides, lined with the latter and feathers. It is placed either 

 in a hole or some crevice of the bark of a tree, the willow, 

 as most affording such as it requires, being preferred, or even 

 between two stems, and has been found in the interstice 

 afforded by two palings: a hole previously tenanted by a 

 Titmouse or other small bird is sometimes resorted to. It is 

 shaped more widely, or more narrowly, according to the 

 width afforded by its plot of building ground. The Rev. 

 Gilbert White, in his 'Natural History of Selborne,' says, 'a 

 pair of Creepers have built at one end of the parsonage 

 house at Greatham, behind some loose plaster. It is very 

 amusing to see them run creeping up the walls with the 

 agility of a mouse. They take great delight in climbing up 



