Creepers 805 



shreds of the inner bark of the eucalyptus, and lined with finer strips of the 

 same or sometimes with grass and feathers. The nest is spherical in shape, 

 outwardly about four or five inches in diameter by some two and a half inches 

 inside, with a small hole in the side for an entrance. The four or five eggs are 

 fine-grained, pure white, and slightly glossy. The male in this species, to quote 

 from Gould, "has the crown of the head, wings, and tail black, each feather 

 with a round spot of white near the tip; a stripe of white commences on the 

 nostrils and passes over the eye ; ear-coverts and sides of the neck gray ; feathers 

 of the back gray at base, succeeded by a triangular-shaped spot of fawn-color 

 edged with black; rump rufous-brown and upper tail-coverts crimson"; under 

 parts mostly yellow. 



According to Campbell the most beautiful of all is the Yellow-rumped Dia- 

 mond-bird (P. xantkopygius), which inhabits the drier and almost waterless 

 tracts of southern interior and western Australia, placing its nest in a "mouse- 

 like hole, drilled into the flat, hard surface of the ground in an oblique direction 

 for about two feet. At the termination is a cavity thickly walled with inter- 

 woven strings of soft bark. The nest is perfectly round, with the side entrance 

 opposite and leading directly into the little tunnel." The eggs are usually 

 four in number. 



THE CREEPERS 



(Family Certhiida) 



Although the word creeper has not of itself a very definite meaning, it has 

 come by common consent to be quite generally applied to the present small 

 group of birds which are characteristically "creepers," normally spending the 

 greater portion of their lives in creeping up and about the trunks of trees and 

 over rocks. The Nuthatches (Sittidce), which are also "creepers," have by 

 many students been placed with them, and some, as Mr. Hume, would make 

 them include the Wrens (Troglodytidce) as well, but they are more properly 

 and conveniently considered distinct. They are small, mainly insectivorous birds, 

 and, with one notable exception, have the plumage very plain, the coloration 

 mostly brown and much streaked or spotted. From the Nuthatches they differ 

 in having the slender bill curved downward, while the wings and tail are variable 

 in size and structure, and the sexes usually alike in plumage. The structure 

 of the feet is much the same as in Nuthatches, the claws, especially that of the 

 hind toe, being very long, much curved, and very sharp to adapt them to their 

 mode of life. 



Typical Creepers. The Creepers are rather sharply divided into two groups, 

 the true or Tree Creepers, comprising a single genus (Certhia) and some thirty 

 odd forms having the tail long, graduated, and the feathers stiff and pointed 

 at the tips, while in the other members of the family the tail is short, rounded, 

 and the feathers soft. In the genus Certhia the plumage is soft and loose, the 

 color being brownish, streaked, and spotted above, and plain whitish, grayish, 



