The long slender bill, without bristles of any kind, is much produced and curved in Neodrepanis; both mandibles being terminally serrated, except in Promerops and Chalcoparia, of which the former has the maxilla notched. The extensible tongue is bifid, with each half frayed out medio-ventrally, save in Promerops, where it is a semi-canal with dorso-laterally frayed edges. The metatarsi are moderate, the claws curved and acute. Arachnothera has both the bill and the feet stouter. The more or less rounded wings are of medium length; the tail varies from square or nearly so to graduated, and has two narrow elongated median rectrices in the males of Hedydipna, Nectarinia, Anthobaphes, Aethopyga, Urodrepanis and Drepanorhynchus. That of Promerops is extraordinarily long and graduated in both sexes. Arachnothera chrysogenys has the loral region naked, and the male of Neodrepanis bluish circum-ocular wattles.
It is impossible to describe shortly the diverse coloration of the various species; some shew much green, black, brown, or olive; nearly all exhibit brilliant, if not metallic, red, blue, lilac, copper, yellow, or orange tints; a few are chiefly purple; many are longitudinally streaked below; in others the breast is white, or exhibits red or orange bands, while the fore-neck may be vermilion striped with lilac. The sides of the back frequently possess long downy feathers, and pectoral tufts are common. In Arachnothera both sexes are greyish or greenish, relieved by a little yellow or orange. Females, however, are usually sombre, the young being similar. The bill is black or brown, the feet vary in hue.
These small graceful forms, restless, though not shy, are rarely seen in companies, but usually in pairs; they frequent groves and forests up to an altitude of about a thousand feet, resorting to more open country and gardens when the shrubs are flowering. The food consists mainly of insects–sometimes taken on the wing–with their larvae and spiders; while the birds hop actively about, and cling to the branches and trunks of trees, like Tits or Creepers, or even to bushes and grass. They rarely hover before flowers as Humming-birds do, though frequently sucking honey. When feeding or singing the wings are often opened and shut alternately. The quick, direct flight is accompanied by rapid pulsations of the pinions, and the males chase their rivals angrily. The shrill, but pleasing and varied notes recall those of the Willow-Warbler. The pear-shaped or oval nests, woven or attached by cobwebs to the ends of boughs, to the under surfaces of leaves, or more rarely to reed-stems, are composed of grass, moss, roots, and the like, lined with hair, feathers, and down, and usually have a projecting porch. Beneath are attached as decorations leaves, twigs, lichens, shreds of bark, paper, and cloth, wood-borings, or caterpillars' excreta. Arachnothera magna, at least occasionally, builds an open nest. The two or three eggs are commonly greenish- or brownish-grey, with purplish, reddish-brown, yellowish, or dusky dots and spots; some, however, are whiter, with blackish markings, dark zones, or hair-streaks; while those of Arachnothera magna are brownish, very thickly speckled with purplish-black. Promerops cafer makes a cup of grass, fibres, and softer materials in forks of bushes, and lays creamy eggs like those of Buntings, with wavy lines or irregular blotches of dark brown or purplish.
Fam. XXIX. Dicaeidae.–The "Flower-peckers" inhabit the Indian and Australian Regions as far eastwards as the Low Archipelago, a few possibly kindred species occupying West Africa. The bill is usually short, broad, and depressed, but is especially slender in Pholidornis, stout and Finch-like in Prionochilus; while both mandibles shew minute terminal serrations. Feathers cover the nostrils in Pardalotus, and in life Lobornis has three small white rictal outgrowths. The tongue is separated into four semi-tubular fringeless projections. The metatarsus is never long; the wings are fairly so; the tail is generally short and even, but is rounded in Prionochilus vincens, longer in most Papuasian forms, and sometimes graduated, as in Pristorhamphus. Many species exhibit vivid combinations of blue or purple with black, relieved by a scarlet or an orange head, rump, or chest-patch, the lower surface being yellow, greyish, or greenish-white; some, however, replace the blue shades by green, brown, or olive; others are quite plain; and Melanocharis unicolor is perfectly black. The Diamond-bird (Pardalotus) has scattered white dots above, and scarlet or yellow tips to the primary coverts; Dicaeum often shews a longitudinal black band below; while bars and streaks occur not infrequently. The bill is blackish, or in Dicaeum erythrorhynchum reddish. The female is almost invariably duller.
These small birds frequent woods and gardens, the little flocks often haunting lofty trees near rivers; they hop briskly among the boughs, dart from bush to bush, creep about and cling like Tits, and utter a long, low warble, or in Pardalotus a harsh monotonous piping note. The food consists of insects, varied by spiders, fruit, buds, seeds, and perhaps honey. Dicaeum and Prionochilus suspend from some twig a domed, pear-shaped nest of white cottony material, frequently covered with grass or moss, and decorated with caterpillars' excreta; Pardalotus chooses old Swallows' nurseries, or holes in trees and walls, or even tunnels a short way into banks, making within a spherical fabric of roots, grass, bark, and feathers. The two to five eggs are commonly white, but in Prionochilus (Piprisoma) squalidus they are redder, with dense brown-pink or claret-coloured blotches or specks.
Fam. XXX. Certhiidae.–The Creepers, a small, though widespread group, occupy most of the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions; Africa from Benguela to Mashona-Land; Australia and New Guinea. The bill is long and generally decurved, but shorter and straighter in Climacteris; while nasal and rictal bristles are absent. The metatarsi are of medium length and slender, though stouter in Salpornis; Tichodroma and Climacteris have the scutes fused; and the toes–especially the hallux–have long, curved claws. The wings vary from moderate and rounded to elongated and pointed; the tail is usually short and square, or very nearly so, but has stiff, graduated, acuminate feathers in Certhia. The coloration of both sexes is brown, black, rufous, buff, grey, and white, except in Tichodroma, which exhibits crimson wing-patches on its grey, black, and white plumage. Bars and spots are frequent, particularly beneath.
The majority are tame birds, inhabiting thinly wooded districts, often close to dwellings; but the European and Asiatic Tichodroma muraria, which has strayed to Britain, haunts mountain cliffs, and, when on migration, walls also. They utter shrill cries, or, more commonly, low reiterated notes, which in our Creeper (Certhia familiaris) are varied by a sweet and fairly loud song; the food consists of insects and their larvae, ants, and spiders. Beginning at the bottom of a trunk the birds work actively but jerkily upwards in zigzags or spirals, flitting from the higher branches to the base of another tree; sometimes, however, they take protracted, undulating flights, or accompany flocks of Tits in winter. Certhia uses the rigid rectrices as Woodpeckers do (p. [457]), though the soft-tailed forms also climb well, while Climacteris is exceptional in spending much time hopping or shuffling along the ground. Seeds of conifers occasionally vary the diet. The nest, composed of twigs, with the addition of grass or moss, and lined with bast, hair, wool, or feathers, is placed behind loose bark, under tiles, in crevices of trees or walls, in piles of bricks, hollow branches, or even the base of large birds' habitations. The three to nine eggs are ordinarily white with red and lilac spots; but in Climacteris the ground-colour is sometimes reddish, in Salpornis the spots are blackish. The last-named fixes a cup-shaped fabric of leaves, bark, and cobwebs to some horizontal bough.
Fig. 137.–Tree Creeper. Certhia familiaris. × 7⁄12.
Fam. XXXI. Coerebidae.–The Quit-quits have the extensible tongue bifid, and frayed out terminally. The bill may be conical, but is usually slender, with a notch and sometimes with rictal bristles, while the long maxilla is hooked in Diglossa and Diglossopis; the metatarsi, wings, and tail are moderate, the last being sometimes forked. These small, active, and restless birds frequent bushy places and the outskirts of forests, from South Florida to the Bolivian Andes and South-East Brazil, several species being peculiar to the Antilles, and Certhidea to the Galápagos. Though companies are seldom formed, the flight and habits are Tit-like, and individuals are often seen hopping about or clinging to the branches in search of the insects which, with fruit, form the usual food. They probe the flowers in company with Humming-birds, and probably suck the honey, while some forms dart after flies like Flycatchers. Several have a fine voice, but the common note is a feeble "quit-quit." The domed nest, made of grass, moss, roots, and fibres, occasionally has a projecting porch, and is frequently lined with down or feathers; the two to four eggs being white or greenish-blue, with dull-red or yellowish-brown blotches or specks. In the Antilles Certhiola weaves a domed structure of similar materials, hair, and spiders' webs, between the outermost twigs of bushes. Many nests are built without being used.