72 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The following is Professor Macgillivray's account of the habits of the Creeper :* " in winter, 

 should you fall in with a flock of Reguli and Pari scouring a wood, you may be pretty well assured 

 that a few Tree Creepers will be found at no great distance. There, clinging to the rough bark at 

 the base of that old elm, you see one advancing upwards by short jerks. At each movement it emits 

 a shrill but feeble cry. See how it climbs, searching every crevice, now proceeding directly upwards, 

 now winding round the trunk, presently passing behind it, and in a short time appearing on the other 

 side. Observe it well, and you will see that it crouches close to the surface, presses its tail against 

 it, now and then picks something from a cleft, jerks itself forward, never rests for a moment, 

 but it seems in utmost haste, and expresses its anxiety by continually emitting its lisping cry. 

 Yet its efforts are not laborious ; it seems to hold on with perfect ease and unconcern, and 

 although it is now half-way up, it exhibits no sign of fatigue. There it passes off" from the. 



COMMON CREEPER. 



trunk, creeps along a nearly horizontal branch, winding round it, adhering even to its lower 

 surface with its back toward the ground. Having gone as far as it finds convenient, it flies 

 back to the trunk, which it ascends until you lose sight of it among the twigs at the top. 

 What next 1 ? Will it creep down again 1 ? No. There it comes with headlong flight, glancing 

 like an arrow curves as it comes near the ground, alights at the very i-oot of the next tree, and 

 commences its ascent. You may watch it for an hour, and you will find it as fresh, as lively, 

 and as keen as ever. Should it happen to observe you, and suspect that you mean it no good, it 

 will run up the back of the tree, appearing now and then at the sides, until it is perhaps half- 

 way up, when it will search all parts alike, being free of the apprehension of injury. But now, 

 hearing its friends the Tits and Reguli at a distance, it looks abroad for a moment from the top of the 

 tree, and uttering a few cries, sweeps away in a curving, somewhat undulating course. 



" Such, in fact, is the ordinary coui-se of action of the Creeper, which is thus of very peculiar and 

 remarkable habits. It alights at the bottom of a tree, clinging to the bark with its claws, and without a 

 moment's delay begins to ascend, which it does by short starts, leaping forward, as it were, and support- 

 ing itself by pressing the tail against the bai-k. In this manner it proceeds, diligently searching for 



* "History of British Bird*," Vol. Ill, p. 36. 



