146 TRUNK-CLIMBING BIRDS. 



Nest. — Of rootlets, grass, and moss, lined with 

 wool, feathers, and shreds of inner bark, and placed 

 in a gap where bark has sprung from the bole of a 

 tree, any superfluous depth being levelled up with 

 twigs ; also in recesses among the thicker stems of 

 ivy growing against tree-trunks, and other similar 

 places. 



Distribution. — General. 



The Tree-Creeper is to be identified by its peculiar 

 and unvarying habits. It is a tree-creeper indeed, 

 creeping up the trunks and along the stouter branches 

 of trees in search of small insect-life lurking in the 

 crevices of the bark. It moves with a spasmodic 

 running gait, with trailed tail and a gliding motion 

 resembling that of a mouse. Its path is ever up- 

 ward, and having worked its way up the bole of 

 one tree, it drops to the base of a neighbouring one, 

 there to resume its spiral, upward path. The Tree- 

 Creeper shares with the Woodpeckers, Nuthaltch, and 

 Wryneck the distinction of creeping about tree-trunks 

 in this manner, but is a tiny bird in comparison with 

 any of these. Its delicate, curved hill further 

 distinguishes it. Few can claim to have heard 

 the Tree-Creeper's song, the only sound to which it 

 usually gives utterance being a spiritless ' Wheesht ' as 

 it passes from one tree to another. The bird is 

 resident throughout the British Islands, and is gener- 

 ally a denizen of wooded districts, where it places 

 its nest in crevices in ivy-covered trunks, between a 

 piece of hanging bark and the trunk of a tree, and 

 in similar places. In winter a Tree-Creeper often 

 joins the roving bands of Titmice, -Goldcrests, &c. that 



