CERTHIAD^E. 49 



Family CERTHIAD^:. 



COMMON CREEPER (Certhia familiaris). Resident 

 throughout the year, and generally dispersed over both 

 counties. This little bird is numerous in the Eton 

 College playing-fields, and often on a quiet Sunday 

 morning in spring have I watched one running 

 nimbly up an old tree, so brown in colour as to be 

 hardly distinguishable from the bark itself now 

 climbing this way, now that, first on this side, then 

 on the opposite, and then off with its pretty jerky 

 flight to search for its insect food on the next tree, 

 always commencing the ascent close to the ground. 

 The Creeper is an early breeder. The nest of this 

 bird is not an easy one to find, built as it is in 

 holes and crevices of trees. The pretty little white 

 eggs, spotted and freckled with brown, principally 

 at the larger end, are laid in a snug nest composed 

 of twigs, wool, feathers, hair, dry leaves, and other 

 soft materials. 



WREN (Troglodytes Europeus). Local name, Jinney 

 Wren. The little unobtrusive Wren is abundant 

 everywhere, and is a universal favourite, from the 

 confidence which it reposes in man. It exhibits the 

 same fearlessness as its congener the Redbreast, but 

 is more retiring in its habits, loving to hop unseen 

 among the brushwood, from whence it will fly sud- 

 denly out to take a short flight, again to disappear 

 in the hedgerow further on. 



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