PERCHING BIRDS. 147 



ants, and hollow decaying trees. It is one of our most 

 beautiful birds, though its charms do not consist of gay 

 colours, but of minute and exquisitely varied pencillings 

 which it is impossible to describe. I never found its 

 nest but once, when three eggs occupied a shallow and 

 much exposed cavity in a decayed oak tree. My atten- 

 tion was drawn to it by the female, which was perched 

 on a bough of the tree, and which, after suddenly raising 

 the feathers of her head, flew off to a short distance. 



In every part of our wooded district the little Creeper 

 (Certhia familiaris) finds a home. Summer and winter, 

 if you watch carefully and quietly, a glimpse will be had 

 of its little brown figure gliding up the trunk of some 

 tree like a mouse, and if your person is concealed, you 

 may see it prying with its slender bill into the crevices 

 of the bark for spiders and other insects that lurk there ; 

 but the moment you are perceived it creeps round to the 

 opposite side of the tree, or flits to another at a little 

 distance. Its chirp is very weak and humble in tone, 

 as if it was afraid of being noticed, and yet in the sum- 

 mer time it may be heard oftener than it can be seen, 

 Indeed, so retiring and unobtrusive are its habits alto- 

 gether, that a careless observer might fail to see it at all. 



In the winter I have noticed it frequenting barns and 

 other outbuildings, and the neighbourhood of houses, 

 the warmth of which attracts a large number of insects ; 

 I have also seen it searching the fences in my garden. 

 At such times it loses somewhat of its usual timidity, 

 although it is still very shy. 



Of the Common Wren (Troglodytes Europceus) it is 

 hardly necessary to say more than that it is a most 

 familiar and abundant species. Every child knows and 

 delights to see " little Jenny Wren," the very picture of 



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