THE CREEPER 



timber, where its sober colouring most effectually tends 

 to its concealment. Woodpecker-like, it runs about the 

 trunks and larger branches, supporting its body with its 

 stiff tail, and picking out its food from the chinks and 

 cracks with its long, slender bill. It flies little whilst in 

 quest of food, save to move from one tree to another, 

 and will often remain about one large tree until almost 

 every part has been examined. Sometimes a solitary 

 Creeper will join a company of Titmice during autumn or 

 winter, and whilst its companions pick up a living amongst 

 the slender twigs it will search the trunk for its own fare, 

 but flitting off in company in an undulating manner. 

 There are many old orchards in Greater London where 

 the ways of this charming little bird may be watched 

 with ease. It lives perhaps exclusively on insects and 

 larvae. The Creeper is not much of a songster, no more 

 so than the Titmice, and its feeble call-note of weet is 

 heard most frequently in the breeding season. It is 

 solitary in its habits, seldom more than a pair being seen 

 unless the brood is out, and very often but a single 

 individual. It probably pairs for life, and begins nest- 

 building for the first brood in April, for the second in 

 June. A favourite site for its nest is in a crevice behind 

 a piece of loose bark, but a hole in a tree is sometimes 

 chosen, a cranny in a building or amongst thatch. The 

 nest is made externally of twigs, lined with fine roots, 

 strips of bark, moss, wool, and feathers. The six or eight 

 eggs are yellowish white, spotted and blotched with reddish 

 brown of various shades and grey. The old birds are secre- 

 tive enough during the breeding period, and do little to 

 betray the site of their nest, which may be placed in quite 

 a frequented spot. 



The adult Creeper has the upper parts dark brown, palest 

 on the rump and darkest on the head, streaked with 

 rufous brown and palest buff ; the wings are dark brown 

 barred with pale brown, the coverts tipped with pale 



99 



