EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN. 
93 
reed-beds. The decaying forest tree is the province 
of the woodpecker, of which there are three kinds ; 
and the trunks and branches of all trees, healthy 
or decaying, are quartered by the small creeper, 
that leaves no crevice unexplored in its search for 
minute insects and their eggs. He is assisted by the 
nuthatch; and in summer the wryneck comes (if 
he still lives), and deftly picks up the little active 
ants that are always wildly careering over the 
boles. The foliage is gleaned by warblers and 
others ; and not even the highest terminal twigs 
are left unexamined by tits and their fellow- 
seekers after little things. Thrushes seek for 
worms in moist grounds about the woods; star- 
lings and rooks go to the pasture lands; the lark 
and his relations keep to the cultivated fields ; and 
there also dwells the larger partridge. Waste and 
stony grounds are occupied by the chats, and even 
on the barren mountain summits the ptarmigan 
gets his living. Wagtails run on the clean margins 
of streams ; and littoral birds of many kinds are in 
possession of the entire sea-coast. Thus, the whole 
ground appears to be already sufficiently occupied, 
the habitats of distinct species overlapping each 
other like the scales on a fish. And when we have 
enumerated all these, we find that scores of others 
have been left out. The important fly-catcher ; 
the wren, Nature's diligent little housekeeper, that 
