438 PERCHING BIRDS. 



Himalaya, although only as a winter visitor. During the summer months it makes 

 its home among precipitous rocks, either in rugged ravines or upon the faces of 

 cliffs. The flight of this bird almost recalls that of a large butterfly, as it makes 

 its way from one crevice to another, hanging momentarily with expanded wings 

 in one spot, thence shuffling upwards for a foot or two, and then suddenly 

 darting off to explore another corner of the rocks, ever in restless motion, 

 save when it creeps to roost in some secure fissure. The wall-creeper nests 

 from April till June, depositing four or five pure white eggs, sparsely speckled 

 with red, in a nest built of straw, grass, and moss, intermingled with wool and 

 feathers. 



The Australian Certain somewhat remarkable Australian birds, placed by Gould 



straight-Claws. amO ng the present family, may be*conveniently noticed here, although 

 their serial position is open to considerable doubt, and they are placed by Dr. 

 Sharpe with the Crateropodidce. The genus, of which there are several species, such 

 as the spiny-tailed (Orthonyx spinicauda), and yellow-headed straight-claw (0. 

 ochrocephalus), is characterised by the short and straight beak, in which the culmen 

 is arched, the moderate and rounded wings, with the first four quills graduated 

 and shorter than the fifth, and the long tail, in which the feathers are broad, and 

 furnished with soft webs, but with stiff, rigid shafts, terminating in naked points. 

 The feet are very large and strong. Inhabiting South and Eastern Australia, the 

 common species frequents remote situations in the bush, rapidly traversing the 

 surface of moss-covered stones and the fallen trunks of trees in search of food. 

 It never climbs, and is solitary in its habits, seldom more than two being seen 

 together. Its oft-repeated cry of cri, cri, cri, crite, betrays its presence, when its 

 native haunts, the most retired forests, are visited. Its food consists of insects and 

 wood-bugs. The eggs are white and large in proportion to the size of the bird. 

 The situation of the nest is the side of a slanting rock, the entrance being level 

 with the surface. The adult male has the head and upper-parts reddish brown ; 

 the wings are brown, the coverts largely tipped with grey; the primaries are 

 crossed with grey at the base ; the tips of the secondaries are tipped with dark 

 brownish grey ; the tail is dark brown ; the sides of the head and neck are dark 

 grey ; the throat and chest white, separated from the grey of the sides of the 

 neck by a lunar-shaped mark of deep black ; and the flanks and under tail-coverts 

 grey, stained with reddish brown. The female differs from her mate, in having 

 the throat rich rusty red instead of white. 



THE NUTHATCHES. 

 Family SlTTlD^ 



Regarded by Dr. Sharpe as inseparable from the creepers, the nuthatches are 

 retained as a distinct family by Mr. Gates, who considers them to be most nearly 

 related to the Crateropodidce. These birds have the edges of both mandibles 

 smooth, or the upper one slightly notched ; the hinder surface of the metatarsus is 

 smooth, and covered with two entire longitudinal plates ; the wing has ten 

 primaries ; the nostrils are clear of the line of the forehead, and overhung by some 



