CERTHIA 193 



$ ad. (England). Upper parts dark brown striped with pale ochreous, 

 the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts rufous brown; quills 

 excepting the three first with a broad bar of buffy white across the middle 

 and a second in the folded wing towards the end, and tipped with the 

 same colour ; tail uniform pale brown, the shafts rufous ; a white streak 

 over the eye ; under parts silky white tinged with buff on the flanks and 

 under tail-coverts ; bill curved, dark horn-brown, paler below ; legs light 

 brown ; iris brown. Culmeii 0'7, wing 2'5, tail 2'45, tarsus 0'65 inch. 

 Sexes similar. The young bird resembles the adult but has the upper 

 parts dull dark brown spotted with yellowish, and faintly shaded with 

 rusty ochreous ; bill very short and almost straight ; under parts greyish 

 white, duller on the vent and flanks. 



Hctb. Europe ; N.W. Africa ; Asia east to Japan, and south 

 to the Himalayas, and N. China ; North America south to 

 Mexico. 



In general habits this is a quiet and unobtrusive bird, but 

 busy and restless, appearing to be always on the move climbing 

 spirally up the trunks of trees, carefully examining the bark for 

 its insect food. It is not a migrant, but a wanderer in the 

 winter season, like the Titmice, with which if often then 

 consorts, and frequents woods and groves both of conifer and 

 non-evergreen trees, gardens, &c. Its call-note is a soft cheep, 

 and its song, which is heard in the spring and early summer, is 

 simple but pleasing. It feeds on insects and their larvae, 

 and to a smaller extent on seeds when insects are scarce. It 

 breeds usually in April, placing its nest in a cleft or behind the 

 loose bark of a tree, occasionally behind loose plaster or in the 

 foundation of the nest of a bird of prey or a rook, and generally 

 raises two broods in the year. The nest is constructed of grass, 

 fine roots and strips of bark, wool, hair, feathers, &c., and is 

 usually rather compressed and deep. The eggs, from 5 to 9 in 

 number, are white, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown 

 and dull red, the markings being frequently collected round the 

 larger end, and measure about 0'62 by 0*49. 



Being subject to slight, often only individual variation, this 

 species has by various authors been split up into many sub- 

 species. Thus, those inhabiting the Palaearctic area have been 

 subdivided as follows : CertMa familiaris L. (North, Central, and 

 South Europe), C. brachydactyla, Brehm (Central Europe); 

 C. britannica, Ridgw. (Great Britain); C. seandulacea, Pall. 

 (Eastern Europe and Siberia) ; C. hodgsoni, Brooks (Kashmir) ; 

 C. japonica, Hartert( Hondo and Nippon, Japan) ; and those 

 inhabitating the Nearctic area as follows : C. americana, Bp. 

 (Eastern North America); C. montana, Ridgw. (Rocky Mountains, 



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