THE SIKHIM TREE-CREEPER. 
135 
To the south of Burmah it occurs in the Malay peninsula,^ Sumatra^ Java 
and Borneo. 
This beautiful Nuthatch is generally found in small companies, climbing 
trees and brushwood. They are able to run both up and down the per- 
pendicular trunks of trees. They nest in small cavities in trees, and lay 
tliree or four eggs, which are white spotted with red and purple. Capt. 
Bingham found the nest in Tenasserim on the 18th of February, but the 
eggs had not yet been laid. 
Family CERTHIID^E, 
Genus CERTHIA, Linn. 
131* CERTHIA DISCOLOR. 
THE SIKHIM TREE-CREEPER. 
Certhia discolor, Bl. J. A. S. B. xiv. p. 580 ; Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 381 ; Wald. in Bl. 
B. Biirm. p. 112 ; Godiv.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlv. pt. ii. p. 70 ; Hume, S. F. v, 
pp. 75, 78 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 200 ; Hume, S. F. viii, p. 90. Certhia 
nipalensis {Hodgs.), apud Brooks, J. A. S. B. xlii. pt, ii. p, 255 ; id. S. F. v. 
p. 74. 
Description. — Male and female. Upper plumage fulvous^ each feather 
edged with black, the margins broader on the head than elsewhere ; rump and 
upper tail-coverts ferruginous ; tail paler ferruginous ; lesser and median 
wing-coverts blackish, with terminal fulvous drops ; greater coverts blackish, 
with fulvous bases and with a fulvous spot at the tip of each outer web ; 
primaries and secondaries brown inclining to black, all but the first four 
quills with a large patch of fulvous white across the middle and with 
a patch near the tip on the outer webs only ; all the quills except the first 
four also tipped with fulvous white ; tertiaries pale fulvous, with blackish 
blotches ; lower plumage earthy brown, paler on the abdomen and sides ; 
lower tail-coverts ferruginous. 
Bill black above, ruddy beneath; legs horny. (Godwin- Austen.) 
Length about 6 inches, tail 3*2, wing 2*7, tarsus '6, bill from gape '8, 
hind toe and claw '75. 
There are many species of Creepers found in India, one or more of which 
may eventually be found in Burmah. C. himalayana has the tail very 
strongly barred. C. hodgsoni, which is very doubtfully distinct from the 
European C. familiaris, has the tail about the same length as the wing 
and the under plumage white. C nipalensis is similar in formation to 
