264 
TREE-CREEPER.— HOOPOE. 
dentally fall, it will dart down, and in most cases, catch it 1 
with its claws before it reaches the ground, and replacing it 
in its chink, resume its work. One slightly wounded, and J 
caught, was put in a cage, when, without loss of time, it 
began battering the wood- work, just as it would have done a 
nutshell, and persevered till it died, more from fatigue than 
hunger, for they are bold birds, and feed readily. In 
America, it is said that they can be tamed, and will creep up j 
and down their owner’s body, poking their bills into seams 
and button-holes, just as they do on trees in their wild state. 
The Certhia, or Tree-Creeper, like the Nuthatch, glides up 
and down the stems of trees ; but so far from having a bill 
strong enough to crack a nut, it is so feeble that the shell of 
a beetle’s wing would resist its powers ; but it is admirably 
adapted for its mode of life. The little Tree-Creeper looks 
more like a mouse than a bird, as it runs in silence up and 
down a bough in search of minute insects ; and so beneficial 
has it been found in ridding trees of noxious insects, that in 
America, where it seems to be more abundant than with us, 
a box is placed at the top of a long pole, to entice it to build 
in gardens, where it makes itself a very welcome guest. 
The Bee-Eaters are so rarely seen in England, as scarcely 
to be considered British birds ; but when once seen, can 
never be mistaken or forgotten, brilliant as they are with 
blue and green of various shades, tinged by beautifully 
reflected lights. As its name implies, it lives chiefly upon 
bees, which it catches on the wing. 
The Hoopoe is another elegant bird, very scarce, but not 
quite so rare as the Bee-Eater. One was not long ago caught 
on Salisbury Plain, in a weak and exhausted state ; it must 
have come from a distance, as its beak was filled with red 
clay, of a quality not found in that neighbourhood. If 
fatigued from the journey it had performed, the distance must 
have been very great ; for one approached a vessel in the 
middle of the Atlantic, and kept company with it a good way, 
but did not settle on board, which it probably would have 
done had it been tired. 
It is common in some parts of the Continent, and by no 
