Perching Birds. 
4 T 
Mr. Hartert in his recent review of the species, also considers it to be different from 
the Continental form, and names it Certhia familiaris britannicn (Novt. Zool. iv., 
p. 139). He says that it differs from the form of Western Europe (C. brachydactyla), 
in having the orange-tawny colour of the rump more extended and slightly more 
orange, the whole aspect of the upper surface being more rufous, the beak also 
averaging decidedly shorter, the hind-claw longer. I hus, in the opinion ot the two 
above-mentioned observers, the British Creeper is a form peculiar to our islands, 
like our Coal-Tit and Long-Tailed Tit. 
The Creeper is not a very easy bird to observe, as it is small, and not readily 
seen. It flies down to the bottom of a tree-trunk 
and climbs to the top with a rapidly jerking motion 
of the body, generally keeping itself well out of 
sight on the other side of the tree, and feeding on 
minute insects as it goes. The single hissing note, 
when once comprehended, is not easily mistaken, 
and seems to come from all points of the compass. 
Competent observers have assured me that the 
Creeper has a song, but I have never heard this 
myself in England, though on the Continent I 
have heard a Creeper sing as loudly as a Tit. I he 
nest is placed under shelter below the eaves of a 
shed or in the hole of a tree, or behind a crevice of 
bark on the latter. It is generally an untidy 
structure of small roots and moss, with strips of 
inside bark and dead wood. The eggs are from 
four to six in number, very similar to those of Tits, 
being white or pinky-white, with rufous or blackish 
spots. 
The Tree-Creeper. 
The Nuthatch. 
northern parts of the Old and New Worlds. The members of it may be said to have 
the plumage of a Tit with the habits of a Creeper, but instead of the long curved bill 
of the latter birds, the Nuthatches have a powerful wedge-shaped bill, more like that 
of a Woodpecker, though they have not the extensile tongue of the last-named 
bird, nor do they possess a spiny tail. The Nuthatch is principally an English 
bird, being pretty generally distributed, but becoming rarer towards Scotland, and 
being unknown in Ireland. On the Continent it is found westwards of the Peninsula 
of Jutland, through Central and Southern Europe, east to Asia Minor and Palestine. 
The favourite haunt of the Nuthatch is in the large trees of a well-timbered park, and 
THE NUTHATCHES. 
Family 
SITTIDCE. 
The Nuthatch ( Sitta 
casia ) is our only representa- 
tive of a family which is 
widely distributed over the 
