184 
If you have got the Certhia muraria , or true Wall-creeper , 
you are iu possession of a very rare, & curious bird. For in all 
my researches here at home for 50 years past, & in all the vast 
collections that I have seen in London, I have never met with it. 
No wonder that the great Mr. Willughby is not very copious on 
the subject, for he acknowledges fairly that he had not seen it ; 
tho’ he supposes it may be found in this island. 1 * * * 5 The best person 
I can refer You to is, D r - John Antony Scopolip a modern, elegant, 
foreign Naturalist, born in the Tyrol, but late deceased in Pavia, 
where he was professor of Botany. This curious, & accurate 
writer was in possession of one in his own Museum, & gives the 
following description of his specimen in his “ Annus primus 
historico-natnralis — “that it’s bill is somewhat longer than it’s 
shanks, slender, & somewhat bent ; that the tongue is bifid ; & 
the feet consisting of three toes forward and one behind.” Again 
he adds, “that the upper part is cinereous, the throat whitish ; 
the abdomen, wings in part, tail, & feet, black : the wings at 
their base, & the quill feathers at their base on one side reddish.” 
“ It was taken in Carniola.” “It is the size of the common 
Creeper , s or Certhia familiar is : it’s nostrils oblong; tail 
cinereous at the point ; the first four quill feathers distinguished 
on the inner side by two white spots.” He concludes thus, — 
“ Migrat solitario sub finem autumni; turres & muros oedium 
altiorum adit ; araneas venatur ; saltitando candit ; volatu vago 
& incerto fertur volucris muta.” — You are sure, I trust, that 
your bird is not the Sitta Europcea, or Nut-hatch. 
I have written so soon, that you may examine y r - bird well 
again, before the specimen decays. Y r - Lady’s Turkey-hen is a 
most prolific dame ; & must, I think, lay herself to death. You 
persist very laudably in y r - curious experiments on trees. When- 
1 Willughby’s observation is as follows: — “They say it is found in 
England ; but we have not had as yet the hap to meet with it.” Ilis descrip- 
tion of the bird which he calls the Wall-creeper, or Spider-catcher, Ficus 
murarius, Aldrov., is borrowed from Aldrovandus, and he places it after the 
Woodpeckers, and amongst the “Woodpeckers less properly so called.” 
Ornithology, Book II. p. 143., tab. 23). — J. E. II. 
* Dr. John Antony Scopoli, born 1723, died 1788. — A. N. 
5 This is a slip of White’s pen. Scopoli’s words {op. cit. p. 51.) are 
“ Statura sittce ” that is, the size of the Nuthatch, which is nearly true. --A.N . 
