528 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



The PiriTS are duller-coloured than the Wagtails, have shorter tails, and evince less 

 fondness for the water. The MEADOW-, RoCK-,and TREE-i'iriTS are thecommonest British species. 

 Neither Wagtails nor Pipits are much given to perching, but the Tree-CREEPERS spend 

 their lives upon trees, some being specially modified for this mode of life, their tail-feathers 

 being stifT and terminating in sharp points. By pressing its tail closely against the tree-trunk 

 up which it is climbing, the bird obtains a wonderfully reliable support. Beginning at the 

 bottom of a trunk, creepers quickly work their way up in a spiral direction, or sometimes 

 in jerky zigzags, searching every crevice for tiny insects, their eggs and larvje, and flitting 

 from the higher branches, when these are reached, to the base of another tree. 



Creepers are mostly dull-coloured, but the Wall-CREEPER has crimson patches on the 

 wings. This bird, which has occurred in Britain, haunts mountain-cliffs. The Tree-CREEPER, 

 a resident m Britain, builds its nest behind pieces of loose bark, or under tiles, or in crevices 

 of trees, walls, or hollow branches. In this nest are laid from six to nine eggs, pure white, 

 spotted with red, or with a creamy ground-colour, with the spots thicker round the large end. 



Intermediate in position between the 

 Creepers and the Titmice are the NUT- 

 HATCHES. Chiefly inhabitants of the northern 

 parts of both hemispheres, the)' extend as 

 far south as Mexico, whilst in the Old 

 World they occur plentifully in the Himalaya. 

 The largest species is found in the moun- 

 tains of Burma. One species is frequently 

 met with in England, and occasionally in 

 Scotland, but is unknown in Ireland. 



The English Nuthatch may serve us 

 as a type of the group. " Its habits," writes 

 Dr. Sharpe, " are a combination of those of 

 the tit and woodpecker. Like the former 

 bird, the nuthatch seeks diligently for its 

 insect-food on the trunks and branches of 

 trees, over which it runs like a woodpecker, 

 with this difference, that its tail is not pressed 

 into the service of climbing a tree, nor does 

 it generally ascend from the bottom to the 

 top, as a woodpecker so often does. On the 

 contrar)', a nuthatch will generalh* be found 

 in the higher branches, and will work its 

 way down from one of the branches towards the trunk, and is just as much at home on 

 the under side of a limb as the upper. Its movements are like those of a mouse rather 

 than (jf a bird, and it often runs head-downward, or hangs on the under side of a branch and 

 hammers away at the bark with its powerful little bill. The noise produced by one of these 

 birds, when tapping at a tree, is really astonishing for a bird of its size, and, if undisturbed, 

 it can be approached pretty closely. Its general food consists of insects, and in the winter the 

 nuthatches join the wandering parties of tits and creepers which traverse the woods in search 

 of food. ... In the autumn it feeds on hazel-nuts and beech-mast, breaking them open by 

 constant hammering; and, like the tits, the nuthatches can be tempted to the vicinity of 

 houses in winter, and become quite interesting by their tameness." 



'I'lie nuthatch nests in hollow trees, plastering up the entrance with mud, and leaving an 

 aperture only just sufficient to enable it to wriggle in and out. A remarkable nest may be 

 seen at the British Natural History Museum. It was built in the side of a haystack, to which 

 the industrious birds had carried as much as ii lbs. of clay, and had thus made for themselves 

 a solid nest in an apparently unfavourable position. 



Mo/» iv J. S, RiidlanJ d^ Snni 



YOUNG SKYLARKS 



Several broods are reared hy each pair oj birds in a season 



