CERTHIA FAMILIARIS, zn.

‘Tree-Creeper.

Certhia familiaris, Linn. Faun, Suec., p. 38.
scandulace, Pall. Zoogr. Ross,
macrodactyla, sep

peel oemticuess

-Asiat., tom. i. Dea sos

tentrionalis, brachydactyla, et megarhynchos, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., pp. 208, 210, 211,

MEDNeREurs

Trene are few persons, I presume, who have given a passing thought to the many interesting objects which
surround them during their walks through the woods and shrubberies of our

islands, that have not often
noticed a little, creeping, mouse-like bird traversing the boles

and horizontal branches of the larger trees,
the palings of an enclosure, or (among other places) the upright sides of an old wall ;

this is the Common
Creeper, Certhia JSamiliaris, a bird known to e

very country boy in the British Islands from north to south,
and- and Rosshire as in Middlesex, Dorset and Cornwall, Wales
most in pairs, but is sometimes seen in company with Gold
Crests and Tits—the latter frequenting the branches, while the admirably adapted structure of the Creeper

among the corrugated interstices of the boles and

and which is almost as numerous in Sutherl
and Ireland. It is generally solitary, or at

enables it to seek its spider and coleopterous food
larger limbs.

One of the great difficulties I experience in writing a history of our native birds is to find something to
say respecting them that has not been previously written; but the subject is a hackneyed one, and every
detail relative to their habits, manners, and actions has been fully recorded by one or other of my
contemporaries, leaving little or nothing that is new to be said; it has been my practice, therefore, to
select those passages from such authors as MacGillivray, Yarrell, Selby, Thompson, and others, upon which
I could not improve, and to give additional information as to the area over which the particular species may
range, its alliance to other members of its genus, and the countries they inhabit, believing that I am better
able to do so than either, or all, of the worthy authors above mentioned, from the circumstance of my
having studied ornithology in a more extended sense. I shall now, then, give a brief enumeration of the
known species of the genus Certhia and the countries in which they are found, and particularize the area over
which our own species is said to range. America is tenanted by two birds of this form—the C. Americana of
Bonaparte, inhabiting the Eastern portion of North America, and the C. Mexicana of Gloger, frequenting the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and Mexico,—both of which are very nearly allied to C. JSamiliaris. India,
or rather that portion of it which includes the southern slopes of the great Himalayan range, is inhabited by
four species, namely, our own C, Samiliaris, C. LEimalayana, C. Nipalensis, and C. discolor. If the C.
Nattereri of Bonaparte, vel C. Coste of Bailly, of the lower alpine region of Europe, should prove to be
identical with C. familiaris, as I believe it to be, then the range of the latter species will be wide indeed ;
for it will extend throughout Europe from Quickiock, in Lapland, to the shores of the Mediterranean 3; over the
province of Algeria, according to Loche; Western India, as evidenced by a specimen killed therein by
Captain Stackhouse Pinwill; Amoor-land, as recorded by Schrenck ; and Japan, whence the younger
Mr. Whitely brought a beautiful specimen, killed at Hakodadi, and which is now in my collection. I
have, in fact, at this moment before me examples which I believe to be true Certhie familiares, from
Hampstead, in Britain, from the neighbourhood of Paris, from Western India, and from Japan, whence to
draw my conclusions.

The following truthful and elegant account of the Creeper is extracted from the work of the departed
MacGillivray, and is here given to render it more familiar to some of my readers.

“Tf, early in December, you should fall in with a flock of Regu and Pari Scomoe e wood, you may be
pretty well assured that a few Tree-Creepers will be found at no great distances There, clinging to the
rough bark at the base of that old elm, you see one advancing upwards by SO Jenson) Att oe movement
it emits a shrill but feeble cry. See how it climbs, searching every crevice, now proceeding directly
upwards, now winding round the trunk, presently passing behind it, and in a short time appearing on te
other side. Observe it well and you will see that it crouches close to the surface, presses its tail against it,
now and then picks something from a cleft, jerks itself Honan, Mev Hest for a moment, nue seems in
the utmost haste, aud expresses its anxiety by continually emitting its lisping Bie nies its aoa are not
laborions ; it seems to hold on with perfect ease and unconcern, and, although it is now halfway up, it
exhibits no sign of fatigue. There it passes off from the yanks creeps along a_ nearly Lea ee
winding round it, adhering even to its lower surface, ce its back towards the ground. Having ae as i
as it finds convenient, it flies back to the trunk, which it ascends, until you lose sight of it among the twigs