230 Bird -Lore 



After discovering it, I withdrew to the piazza, several rods away, to watch; 

 but, when the parents had gone back and forth quite freely for some time, I 

 rnoved boldly up to the foot of the tree about a rod away. Shrill notes and the 

 sound of small feet prancing about on the bark over my head made me look 

 up. There stood Certhia, turned sideways looking down at me. I had presumed 

 on too short an acquaintance. Berating myself for taking for granted the 

 phlegm of even such matter-of-fact birds as Creepers, I hurriedly withdrew 

 to another tree trunk. The apology was quickly accepted, and both parents 

 were soon busily feeding ^^^he brood. 



They went to the nest in different ways. Sometimes they would light on 

 the trunk above the crack first, then fly down below it and rock up, slipping 

 quickly into the slit; but more often they would light below the nest. When 

 entirely off guard, they would light close to the entrance or drop down from 

 above straight to the nest. Usually they waited at the entrance a moment 

 and called as if to make sure that the youngsters were awake and ready for 

 dinner. When an old bird went in and leaned down to feed the young, I could 

 just see, through the window-like crack in the bark, the white of its throat and 

 breast and corresponding white patches on little throats raised for the food. 

 When a large-winged insect like a moth was taken down, the parent stayed in 

 some time, as if having to prepare the unmanageable food for the young. The 

 old birds, with sanitary care, usually waited a moment after feeding the brood 

 and carried away ordure, so they must have had an exemplarily clean nest. 



Occasionally, when one parent came the other was inside, so the second 

 one had to wait outside. The waiting bird once stood and called at the door- 

 way until the one inside came out, and flew off with a cheerful I-i. But, though 

 the pair generally took turns, they were not obstinately set on the order of 

 their going. One day, one of them, presumably the male, after climbing the 

 trunk with wings shaking tremuously at his side, flew down to go in, but, 

 being followed to the door by his mate, politely gave way for her to enter first. 



A parent, on leaving the nest, once climbed on up the tree trunk, but 

 ordinarily the birds would fly down with their low call, it-tah, it-tah, and 

 swing with undulating flight low across the mossy carpet to another tree, 

 . with an upward curve alighting on its trunk. The two were seen one day rock- 

 ing up trunks each side of the home spruce. Several times I saw them light 

 at the bottom of a tree and rock straight up until they went out of sight among 

 the lofty branches of the tree tops ; but sometimes they were most unsystematic, 

 working up a short distance, then flying down a bit, apparently doing just as 

 they took the notion — but let those who know more than Creepers about the 

 distribution of insects on tree trunks criticise! When climbing, if wanting to 

 change their angle, they would jerk themselves sideways with a flip of the 

 wing that suggested a shrug of the shoulders. 



The large trunks were their habitual hunting grounds, but here again there 

 were exceptions. One bird actually crept up a mossy sapling, another lit on 



