44 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
deserted, were placed in the nest of a Wren, and the bird 
successfully hatched and reared the young in addition to its 
own brood. Pure white eggs are often found. In May, 1905, 
I found near Stenhouse (Tynron) a nest built into an 
empty circular tobacco-tin which had been thrown away 
and had been caught up about three feet from the ground 
in the fork of a thorn-bush. 
A curious variety in which the head, cheeks and neck, 
with the exception of the throat, were all pure white,* is 
recorded from Dormont (Dalton) in February, 1857. 
THE BRITISH TREE-CREEPER. 
Certhia familiaris hritannica, Ridgway. 
Local names— Tree-speler ; Woodpecker. 
" What Hfe the Httle Creeper of the Tree 
To leafdom lends ! See how the antic bird. 
Her bosom to the bark, goes round away 
Behind the trunk, but quaintly reappears 
Through a rough cleft above, with busy bill 
Picking her lunch ; and now among the leaves 
Our birdie goes, bright gUmmering m the green 
And yellow Ught that fills the tender tree. „ 
Ana y«iiu g Thomas Aibd.— " A Summer Day. 
A common resident in our woods and plantations. 
The Tree-Creeper is not so noticeable in spring as it is in 
winter, when it may often be seen among small parties ot 
titmice, busily searching for insect-food on the branches 
and trunks of trees. . , ,c ^ a 
" The Creeper " is included in a hst of the Rarer Species 
of Birds " found in the parish of Kirkmichael m 1791.t 
The nest is usuaUy in a hole or rent of a tree, or behind 
a semi-detached piece of bark, but our stone-waUs or 
* Notes for Naturalists^ p. 47. 
+ Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. I., p. 61. 
