ALWAYS " ON THE MOVE." 171 



in summer ; yet how punctually, and with how remarkable 

 a certainty, they return to their accustomed haunts ! 



Of European creeping birds, or Certhiadse, we count 

 seven species. In their mode of progression they are not 

 unlike the woodpeckers, and they move up and dow^n the 

 trunks of trees in swift short hops or jerks, clinging to the 

 bark with their sharp claws, and at the same time making 

 use of their tail, in climbing, as a kind of third limb. 

 But while some pursue their insect prey among the trees, 

 others hunt for it on the mouldering surface of wall or 

 rock. 



The Common Creeper is a British resident, and in 

 thickly-wooded districts frequently met with. He might 

 fairly be taken as a type of perpetual motion, for he is 

 always " on the move," and his activity seems inexhaust- 

 ible. The rapidity of his motions almost baffles the 

 observer. At one moment he is hopping before your 

 eyes ; at the next, he has disappeared on the other side of 

 trunk or branch. He is as fearless as he is restless, and 

 enters our gardens and orchards freely, probing with 

 slender bill the fissured bark of every tree in quest of his 

 insect food. 



He builds his nest in the hollow of some decayed tree : 

 it is a simple affair — dried grass and bark lined with 

 feathers. 



To the same family belongs the Nuthatch, another of 

 the European woodland-birds. He lives partly upon in- 

 sects, and partly upon seeds, and the kernels of filberts 



