60 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



Family CERTHIID^. 

 Tree-Creeper. Certhia familian's, Linn. 



[Climb-tree, Tree-climber, Hood-pecker : Dev.'] 



Resident, common in wooded districts throughout the county. Breeds. 



To be met with wherever there are trees ; in woods and plantations, iu 

 shrubberies, lawns, and parks ; there must be few who will not have 

 noticed the tiny Tree-Creeper Hitting with rapid motion up the stems of the 

 trees, searching the bark for minute insects, and, after it has completed 

 its investigation of one tree, flying off to another, settling on its trunk 

 close to the ground, and working its way upwards as before. Every now 

 and then the little bird emits a shrill, mouse-like chirp, which is its only 

 song. It presses its stiff tail-feathers well against the stem of the tree, 

 and thus gains assistance as it climbs. Draw near, and it will wind round 

 to the side of the tree out of view, and its brown and mottled plumage so 

 nicely corresponds with the colour of the bark that it can easily escape 

 detection. It has a slender, somewhat curved bill, which is well adapted 

 for picking insects out of the crevices of the bark. Its flight, like that of 

 most birds which seek their living exclusively on the trunks and boughs 

 of trees, is undulating, and ir rarely takes a longer flight than from one 

 tree to the next. Although one of our commonest birds its nest is seldom 

 found, being so artfully concealed. The late Mr. T. II. A. Briggs found a 

 nest with young in a hollow between ivy-stems and the boll of a tree 

 by the Yealm between Pushneh Bridge and Kitley Quarry, May 20th, 

 IbTl. 



Family FRINGILLID^. 



Subfamily FRINGILLIN^. 



THE FINCHES. 



The large family of the Finches includes some of our 

 most abundant and familiar birds. They all feed upon 

 seeds, grain, buds, and insects, and seek their food equally 

 upon the ground, and in trees and bushes. In the winter 

 they collect in flocks, sometimes of immense size, and are 

 to be met with on the stubbles and around our rick-yards. 

 They mostly migrate southwards in the autumn, the place 

 of those which spent the breeding-season with us being 

 taken by others of the same species which come to us from 



