224 CREEPER. 



The female pale cinereous brown above, beneath mixed pale ash, 

 yellowish, and dusky, in curved marks like waves ; vent white ; bill 

 and legs as in the other sex. 



Native place uncertain. — Mr. Woodford's drawings. 



12.— CARMINE CREEPER. 



Le Sucrier Cardinalin, Levail. Afr. vi. 149. pi. 291. 

 Certhia Cardinalis, Cardinal Creeper, Nat. Misc. pi. 102. 



LENGTH six inches and a half. Bill and legs black ; eyes 

 brown, head and all the upper parts fine glossy green gold; from 

 the breast all the under parts full carmine-red ; the two middle tail 

 feathers elongated, exceeding the others in length by two inches. 



The female a trifle smaller, and without the elongated tail feathers ; 

 the under parts yellow instead of red. 



In the rainy season, or winter, the male has the tail even, as in 

 the female, and the red belly changes more or less to yellow, so 

 as to give the appearance of the female, excepting being larger. 



At first both sexes are olive-brown, where afterwards they become 

 green gold, and both yellow beneath; and it is only during incuba- 

 tion that the male is red beneath, or has the long tail feathers. 



Inhabits the high mountains of the Great Namaqua Country, 

 nest and eggs not known ; lives chiefly on the Aloe dichotoma, or 

 on a species of red lilly, growing in plenty there. Is said not to 

 remain the whole winter ; but perhaps its disappearance, at that 

 season, may be owing to the food necessary for it being more plen- 

 tiful in the neighbouring parts ; and that this, as well as other birds, 

 merely change place, from this circumstance, but do not completely 

 migrate. 



