290 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ON THE BEEEDING OF THE WALL CREEPER, 

 TICHODROMA MURARIA. 



By W. H. St. Quintin. 



The interest which attaches to the habits of this charming 

 little bird is my excuse for asking you to insert the following 

 in your pages. On the 5th inst. I was descending the gorge of 

 the Trift, so well known to visitors to Zermatt as giving access 

 to some of the most interesting of the minor peaks to be reached 

 from that most attractive climbing centre. As I reached the 

 lower end, and was coming out into the main valley, the move- 

 ments of an object on the face of the opposite wall of rock 

 attracted my attention. A glance through a glass made certain 

 that it was, what I had suspected, a Wall-creeper. Sitting down, 

 I watched and saw that the bird was gathering food, and that the 

 bunch in its beak of what appeared to be light-coloured moths 

 and spiders' nests was rapidly accumulating as the bird pursued 

 its irregular course up and along the precipitous rocks, shifting 

 its position with jerky leaps more frequently in a horizontal 

 direction, flirting its wings and tail, and showing the lovely rose- 

 coloured shoulders in a way which, with its general plumage of 

 quaker-grey, irresistibly suggested comparison with an enormous 

 crimson underwing moth. Presently, dropping off the cliff, the 

 bird, which by this time I had identified as a female, passed me 

 in its fluttering flight, and disappeared round a projecting rock 

 nearly on my level. While I watched to see if it would return, 

 I suddenly saw before me the male hunting over the same rock, 

 on which he seemed to find an abundance of food, for in a very 

 few minutes he too had his "load" ready for delivery to what 

 I now knew was at hand, an expectant brood. His search con- 

 cluded at a considerably higher level than that of his mate, and 

 letting go his hold, he allowed himself to sink through the air 

 until, when opposite to me, he arrested his drop, and pursued an 

 exactly similar flight to that of the female. 



It did not take me long to turn the angle of the rock in 

 question, and I soon discovered a likely-looking crevice, and I 

 sat down against a grey stone with my glass in readiness at a 

 distance of some thirty-five or forty yards. I had seen neither 

 bird commence its hunt for food, nor leave the spot in which 



