130 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
The Pipits are duller-coloured than the Wagtails, have shorter tails, and evince less 
fondness for the water. The MEADOW-, ROcK-, and TREE-PIPITS are the commonest 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 stiff 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 larve, 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 in Britain, builds its nest behind pieces of loose bark, or under tiles, or in crevices 
ef 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 NutT- 
HATCHES. Chiefly inhabitants of the northern 
parts of both hemispheres, they 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 
Photo by A. S, Rudland & Sons it generally ascend from the bottom to the 
YOUNG SKYLARKS top, as a woodpecker so often does. On the 
Several broods are reared by each pair of birds in a season contrary, a nuthatch will generally 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 of 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 nuthatcles can be tempted to the vicinity of 
houses in winter, and become quite interesting by their tameness.” 
The 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 It Ibs. of clay, and had thus made for themselves 
a solid nest in an apparently unfavourable position. 
