THE CREEPERS. 
119 
shores of the Baltic, Denmark, and Western Scandinavia as far 
as the White Sea. 
Habits The same as those of A. obscurus. 
Nest. — Like that of A. obscurus. 
Egg S _ — Also like those of the above-mentioned species 
the CREEPERS. FAMILY CERTHIID/E. 
These birds are mostly recognised from the rest of the 
Passeriformes or Perching Birds of the Old World, by their 
peculiarly pointed tail, which is like that of a miniature Wood- 
pecker, and serves the same purpose, having stiffened shafts 
to the feathers, as a support to the bird when it is clinging to 
or climbing up a tree. In their mode of nesting, and in the 
colour of their eggs, the Creepers are very like Tits, to which 
they are undoubtedly closely allied; but they possess very long 
and slender bills, and their toes are also very long, especially 
the hallux, or hind toe, which has always a large claw. 
Just as in the Woodpeckers, which have not all stiffened 
shafts to the tail-feathers, there are among the Certhiida . birds 
in which the tail is soft, like that of the Tits. Such forms are 
Tichodroma and Salpornis , the former a bird of the Mediter- 
raneo-Persic Sub-region, the latter of the Indian and African 
Regions. 
In all the Creepers the bill is long and curved, very different 
from that of the Tits, where it is stout and strong. The tongue 
is ordinary, and not capable of being extended, as is the case 
with the tropical Sunbirds ( Nectariniidce ), which have a very 
similarly shaped bill. The tail-feathers are tw r elve in number. 
The Creepers have no bristles at the gape, and in this respect 
they approach the Wrens, as they do also in the colour and 
markings of the eggs. They are poor nest-builders, much in- 
ferior to Tits in this respect, and far behind the Wrens in 
architectural skill. Although laying spotted eggs, they conceal 
them in the same manner as Tits and Wrens, the reason being 
doubtless the same in all three cases, viz., that the glossy white 
ground-colour of the egg is so conspicuous, that the few spots 
>vould not serve to hide them, \yere the nest built in the open, 
