THE CREEPERS. 1 19 



shores of the Baltic, Denmark, and Western Scandinavia as far 

 as the White Sea. 



Habits. The same as those of A. obscurus. 



lf es t. Like that of A. obscurus. 



Eggs. --Also like those of the above-mentioned species 



THE CREEPERS. FAMILY GERTRUDE. 



These birds are mostly recognised from the rest of the 

 Passeiiformes or Perching Birds of the Old World, by their 

 peculiarly pointed tail, which is like that of a miniature Wood- 

 pecker, and serves the same purpose, having stiffened shafts 

 to the feathers, as a support to the bird when it is clinging to 

 or climbing up a tree. In their mode of nesting, and in the 

 colour of their eggs, the Creepers are very like Tits, to which 

 they are undoubtedly closely allied; but they possess very long 

 and slender bills, and their toes are also very long, especially 

 the hallux, or hind toe, which has always a large claw. 



Just as in the Woodpeckers, which have not all stiffened 

 shafts to the tail-feathers, there are among the Certhiida^ birds 

 in which the tail is soft, like that of the Tits. Such forms are 

 Tichodroma and Salpornis, the former a bird of the Mediter- 

 raneo-Persic Sub-region, the latter of the Indian and African 

 Regions. 



In all the Creepers the bill is long and curved, very different 

 from that of the Tits, where it is stout and strong. The tongue 

 is ordinary, and not capable of being extended, as is the case 

 with the tropical Sunbirds (Nectariniida\ which have a very 

 similarly shaped bill. The tail-feathers are twelve in number. 

 The Creepers have no bristles at the gape, and in this respect 

 they approach the Wrens, as they do also in the colour and 

 markings of the eggs. They are poor nest-builders, much in- 

 ferior to Tits in this respect, and far behind the Wrens in 

 architectural skill. Although laying spotted eggs, they conceal 

 them in the same manner as Tits and Wrens, the reason being 

 doubtless the same in all three cases, viz., that the glossy white 

 ground-colour of the egg is so conspicuous, that the few spots 

 would not serve to hide them, were the nest built in the open. 



