THE TRUE CREEPERS. 
12 I 
Young. — Much more mottled on the upper surface than the 
adults, the central buff markings to the feathers very much 
larger and occupying nearly the whole of the feather ; the 
pattern of the wing as in the adult, the cross bands on the 
quills all very strongly indicated; the under surface of the body 
dull white, the feathers of the breast obscured by dusky-brown 
tips. 
Range in Great Britain. — Resident in nearly every part of the 
British Islands, as far north as the Isle of Skye and Caithness, 
and occurring as a straggler in the Orkneys arid Shetland Is- 
lands. Mr. Ridgway considers that the British Tree-Creeper 
is a different species from that inhabiting the continent of 
Europe, and has named it Certhia britannica. He says that 
the form of the British Islands is browner in colour, the wings 
of a deeper tawny colour, and the under-parts duller. (Cf. 
Ridgw., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v., p. 113 (1882). The con- 
tinental bird is certainly greyer, the streaks ashy instead of 
buff; the rump is not so conspicuously tawny in the foreign 
specimens, but there is no difference in the colour of the under- 
parts. Such is our conclusion after comparing a series of 
skins in the British Museum, but the differences can hardly be 
called specific, as French specimens are intermediate. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Throughout the Palaearctic 
Region, i.e., Europe and Asia north of the line of the Hima- 
layas. Mr. Ridgway, however, in his paper above rclerrcd to, 
recognises two races in Europe besides the one he calls C. 
britannica , and, according to the opinions cf recent writers, 
there are several races of the Common Creeper to be distin- 
guished in the Patearctic Region alone, to say nothing of the 
American Creeper ( C. americana), which can scarcely be sepa- 
rated from its European representative. The Himalayas and 
the off-lying mountain ranges of the chain in Burma possess 
six species, these regions being very rich in Creepers, Tits, and 
Nuthatches. The northern range of the European Certhia is 
63° N. l it. in Scandinavia, 6o° in Russia, and about 57 0 in 
Siberia. It is found in Algeria to the south of the Mediter- 
ranean, but not in those countries where no pine-forests 
occur. 
Habits, — Notwithstanding the name of familiaris which Lin- 
pteus bestowed on the Creeper, it is by no means a familiar 
