THE WALL-CREEPER. 

 Tichodroma muraria (Linnaeus). 

 Plate ii. 



On October 30, 1792, Robert Marsham, of Stratton-Strawless in Norfolk, 

 wrote to Gilbert White of Selborne, describing a specimen of the Wall-Creeper 

 which had been shot by his man, whilst flying about his house. This was the 

 first authentic record in England of this bird, which has since been obtained four 

 times, viz. one in Lancashire, May 8, 1872; another near Winchelsea, about 1886; 

 one near Hastings, December 1905 ; and the last, recorded by Mr. H. W. Ford-Lindsay 

 in Witherby's British Birds (vol. vi. p. 218), was obtained within the ruins of 

 Camber Castle, Sussex, on November i, 191 2. 



Abroad the Wall-Creeper is found among the mountain ranges of Central and 

 Southern Europe, and in winter may sometimes be seen climbing about the walls 

 of old buildings in southern France and Italy. It is also met with in Asia and in 

 Northern Africa. 



The nest, placed in rock crevices which are often inaccessible, is described by 

 Seebohm {British Birds, vol. i. p. 520), from a specimen in his collection, as 

 follows : " Its chief material is moss, evidently gathered from the rocks and stones, 

 intermingled with a few grasses, and compactly felted together with hairs, wool, and 

 a few feathers. The lining is almost exclusively composed of wool and hair, very 

 thickly and densely felted together." The eggs are white, minutely spotted with 

 reddish-brown, and vary in number from three to five. 



Lord Lilford, in his book on British Birds, says : " My own acquaintance with 

 the Wall-Creeper was first formed high up in the Italian Alps during the month 

 of August ; I found it in small family-parties, generally frequenting precipitous 

 faces of rock ; the birds examine every nook and crevice, not, as in the case of the 

 Woodpeckers, by continuous climbing, but by a series of short hops in some degrees 

 resembling the method of progression of the Nuthatch ; the birds thus observed by 

 me appeared to be perfectly fearless of man, probably from their small acquaintance 

 with him, and permitted a very close observation of their habits ; they seemed to 

 find abundant food in the crannies and small fissures of the limestone upon which 

 I could hardly bear my hand in the full blaze of noon ; after carefully examining 

 one of these localities the bird would flit with a very peculiar butterfly-like flight 

 to the lower end of another crevice in the rock. I never saw one of them progress 

 head downwards or sideways, and the only sound that I heard from them was a 

 rapidly repeated single note somewhat resembling that of the Wryneck." 



The female resembles the male, but in summer has less black on the throat. 



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