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COMMON CREEPER. 
Certhia, Linnams. ■ — • Generic characters. — 
Bill slender, both mandibles curved ; wings 
long, four first quills graduated ; tail leng- 
thened, graduated, feathers lanceolate at 
the tips, rigid ; feet large, all the claws 
slender, that of the hallux long and curved. 
Type. — Certhia familiaris. 
Note. — Europe, America, Asia.* 
Certhia familiaris, Common Creeper. — 
Certhia familiaris, Linn Creeper or Common 
Creeper of British authors. — The Creeper, next 
to the Common Goldcrest, is one of our 
smallest birds, and on this account, together 
with its shy and retired habits, and peculiar 
manner of avoiding being seen, by suddenly 
placing the tree or branch on which it rests 
between itself and the observer, it is not easily 
discovered, and has been accounted a rather 
uncommon bird. This, however, is by no means 
the case either in England or in the south and 
middle of Scotland, neither is it unfrequent in 
Ireland in favourable localities.! The Creeper 
delights in the older woods, and in parks with 
old scathed timber ; by remaining stationary for 
a short while in any retired wood suited to their 
habits, the weak sibilous note will be heard re- 
peated at short intervals, and on following the 
* We have not seen the Asiatic form : it may be typical 
of another sub-genus. 
tThompson. 
