THE COMMON CREEPER. 227 



line. The figure will show the colours and markings better 

 than any description, as they are minute and delicate ; it also 

 shows the junction of the two outer toes at their base, and 

 the length and strength of the claw on the hinder toe. It 

 will also be seen, on comparing it with the wood-pecker, that 

 the feet are placed farther forward, so that the centre of gra- 

 vity is nearly in the centre of the base which they form. 

 That may always be ascertained from the attitude of a bird : 

 if the axis is nearly level, the bird is balanced on its centre, 

 and can walk or run well ; but if the head is inclined 

 upwards, the bird is never a good walker, unless the eleva- 

 tion of the head is produced by the motion of the neck, and 

 the body remains nearly horizontal. Thus any one can dis- 

 cover that the kingfisher is by no means so good a walker as 

 the creeper. The tail feathers of the creeper, which are twelve 

 in number, are stiff and pointed, and adapted for acting as a 

 prop, like those in the wood-pecker's. 



Thus formed, and so light, the creeper runs over the boles 

 and branches of trees in all directions, and with incredible 

 celerity. It is most abundant in the forests, even in the 

 depth of them, and far to the north ; and it runs not only 

 upwards, downwards, and across the perpendicular trunks, 

 but with its back undermost, on the lower sides of the 

 branches. Its object is to pick out of the smaller crevices of 

 the bark those insects and their eggs which, though not 

 observed by the larger birds, would, were they suffered to 

 remain, do incredible damage to the trees. The bird is so 

 small, that the most slender twig will bear it ; so that it 

 clears the terminal buds on the young branches when they 

 are only partially formed. 



It is so active and so generally distributed, that trees of all 

 descriptions, and in all places, fall under its care. Woods, 

 copses, hedge-rows, shrubberies, orchards, gardens, all places 

 are visited by the little active creeper ; and many a perfect 



