Locality. 
Food. 
Nest, &c. 
116 ANISODACTYLI. CERTHIA. CoMMon 
and, like them, are supported behind by their stiff deflected 
tail. They are insectivorous. The plumage is similar in 
both sexes. Europe furnishes but one species. 
» Common Creeper.—Certhia familiaris, Linn. 
PLATE 39. Fig. 2. 
Certhia familiaris, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 184. 1.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 469. sp. 1.— 
Lath. Ind. Ornith. v. 1. p. 280. 
Certhia, Rati, Syn. p. 47. A. 5.—Wiil. p. 100. t. 23.—Briss. p. 603. 1.—Id. 
8vo, 2. p. 2. 
Le Grimpereau, Buff: Ois. v. 5. p. 581. t. 21. f. 1.—Jd. Pl. Enl. 681. f. 1.— 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. v. 1. p. 410. 
Gemeine Baumlaufer, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 2. p. 1085.—Meyer, Tas- 
schenb. Deut. v. 1. p. 130.—Frisch. Vég. t. 39. f. 1. & 2. 
Common Creeper, Br. Zool. 1. No. 92. t. 39.—Arct. Zool. 2. No. 174.— 
Lewin’s Br. Birds, 2. t. 55.—Albin. 3. t. 25.—Lath. Syn. 2. p. 701.—Id. 
Sup. p. 126.—Mont. Ornith. Dict. 1.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, v. 1. p. 125.— 
Pult. Cat. Dorset. p. 5.— Wale. Syn. 1. t. 54.—Shaw’s Zool. v. 8. p. 186. 
This bird, like the preceding one, is the only European 
species of its genus. It is indigenous, and very generally dis- 
persed throughout England, being found wherever trees grow 
abundantly. It is common also in Scotland: I have noticed 
it in the woods at Blair in Athole, and at Dunkeld. With 
the exception of the Golden-crested Regulus, it is the smallest 
of our native birds, and weighs scarcely two drachms. It is 
an excellent climber, and is constantly in motion, on the 
trunks and branches of trees, always in a perpendicular or 
spiral ascent, and, like the woodpeckers, using its stiff, sharp- 
pointed and deflected tail, as an aid for that purpose.—It 
feeds entirely upon small insects, findimg them in the seams 
and crevices of the bark.—Its nest 1s made in some hole of a 
decayed tree, and is formed of grass, and the dry inner bark, 
with a lining of teathers. The eggs vary in number, from 
seven to nine, and are white, speckled with reddish-brown. 
In the summer, the creeper may be frequently heard, re- 
peating its weak and monotonous note, which differs but 
slightly from that of the regulus. According to TrEmMMINcK, 
