
( 52 ) 
ORD. If. GENUS XII. CREEPER. 
Brit, very flender, weak, and curved. 
Nostrizs, fmall. 
Toncve, not fo long as the bill, hard, and fharp at the point. 
Toxs, three forward, one backward; the hind toe large, the claws long 
and hooked. 
SPECIES L CREEPER. 
Pl. 55. 
Certhia familiaris. Lin. Syft. I. p. 184. 
Le Grimpereau.  Brif. Orn. III. p. 603. 
This is one of the leaft of the Britifh birds, its length being only five inches 
and a half, and its breadth feven and half. The bill is light brown: the head, 
back, hind part of the neck, fhoulders, and fmaller coverts of the wings, are taw- 
ny fpotted with white: the greater coverts, and quill feathers, are dufky, tipped 
with white, and variegated with black: breaft and belly of a filvery white: 
rump tawny: tail, confifting of twelve ftiff pointed feathers, fomewhat darker : 
legs grey. 
This is a very common bird in England, frequenting our woods, but often 
efcaping notice from the fimallnefs of its fize and the eafe with which it runs 
round the bodies of trees, in the hollows of which it builds its neft. It lays 
from five to feven eggs, for a reprefentation of which fee PI. XII. Fig. 1. 

