4 3 8 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Himalaya, although only as a winter visitor. During the summer months it makes 
its home among precipitous rocks, either in rugged ravines or upon the faces of 
cliffs. The flight of this bird almost recalls that of a large butterfly, as it makes 
its way from one crevice to another, hanging momentarily with expanded wings 
in one spot, thence shuffling upwards for a foot or two, and then suddenly 
darting off to explore another corner of the rocks, ever in restless motion, 
save when it creeps to roost in some secure fissure. The wall-creeper nests 
from April till June, depositing four or five pure white eggs, sparsely speckled 
with red, in a nest built of straw, grass, and moss, intermingled with wool and 
feathers. 
The Australian Certain somewhat remarkable Australian birds, placed by Gould 
straight-Claws. am0 ng the present family, may be conveniently noticed here, although 
their serial position is open to considerable doubt, and they are placed by Dr. 
Sharpe with the Crateropodidoe. The genus, of which there are several species, such 
as the spiny-tailed (Orthonyx spinicauda), and yellow-headed straight-claw ( 0. 
ochrocephalus), is characterised by the short and straight beak, in which the culmen 
is arched, the moderate and rounded wings, with the first four quills graduated 
and shorter than the fifth, and the long tail, in which the feathers are broad, and 
furnished with soft webs, but with stiff, rigid shafts, terminating in naked points. 
The feet are very large and strong. Inhabiting South and Eastern Australia, the 
common species frequents remote situations in the bush, rapidly traversing the 
surface of moss-covered stones and the fallen trunks of trees in search of food. 
It never climbs, and is solitary in its habits, seldom more than two being seen 
together. Its oft-repeated cry of cri, cri, cri, crite, betrays its presence, when its 
native haunts, the most retired forests, are visited. Its food consists of insects and 
wood-bugs. The eggs are white and large in proportion to the size of the bird. 
The situation of the nest is the side of a slanting rock, the entrance being level 
with the surface. The adult male has the head and upper-parts reddish brown; 
the wings are brown, the coverts largely tipped with grey; the primaries are 
crossed with grey at the base; the tips of the secondaries are tipped with dark 
brownish grey; the tail is dark brown; the sides of the head and neck are dark 
grey; the throat and chest white, separated from the grey of the sides of the 
neck by a lunar-shaped mark of deep black; and the flanks and under tail-coverts 
grey, stained with reddish brown. The female differs from her mate, in having 
the throat rich rusty red instead of white. 
The Nuthatches. 
Family S ITT ID 
Regarded by Dr. Sharpe as inseparable from the creepers, the nuthatches are 
retained as a distinct family by Mr. Oates, who considers them to be most nearly 
related to the Crateropodidoe. These birds have the edges of both mandibles 
smooth, or the upper one slightly notched; the hinder surface of the metatarsus is 
smooth, and covered with two entire longitudinal plates; the wing has ten 
primaries; the nostrils are clear of the line of the forehead, and overhung by some 
