Cassell's book of birds; vol. 3

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

THE COMMON TREE CREEPER (Certhia familiaris).

The Common Tree Creeper is an inhabitant of the woodland districts and orchards of Europe and Siberia, and is frequently found at a considerable elevation on such mountains as are not entirely destitute of trees. Like other members of its family, it remains within a certain limited tract during the breeding season, and after that period wanders over the surrounding country in company with Titmice, Woodpeckers, and other birds. Its flight is rapid, but unsteady; and during the greater part of the year it is restricted to the slight effort required to pass from one tree to another. Upon the ground its movements are extremely awkward; it is only among the branches that it displays the wonderful activity of which it is capable. Its cry closely resembles that of the Golden-crested Wren. Towards man it exhibits the utmost friendliness, and frequently ventures close to his dwellings, or even occasionally makes its nest within some tempting hole in an old house or wall.

During the summer the temperament of the Tree Creeper is joyous and brisk, but wintry weather soon renders it dull and uneasy. No doubt this very visible discomfort arises in some measure from the impossibility of keeping its feathers in the neat, trim state in which it delights at other seasons of the year.

Holes and fissures are usually employed by this species, both for building purposes and as sleeping places. The nest, which varies considerably in size, is formed of dry twigs, grass, leaves, straw, or bark, woven together with spiders' webs, and lined with feathers and fibres of various kinds. The chamber of the young is round and deep, and so compactly and neatly finished off as to render it a real work of art. The brood consists of eight or nine white eggs, spotted with red, and deceptively like those of the Titmouse. Both parents assist in the labour of incubation, and feed their hungry family with great devotion. The young usually remain for a long time in the nest, but if alarmed will scramble out, and hurry along the branches to some safe retreat, even before they are fully fledged. The female lays twice during the summer, the first time about April, and again in June. The second brood rarely consists of more than from three to five eggs.

THE SABRE-BILL.

The SABRE-BILL (Xiphorhynchus trochilirostris) is readily known by its unusually long, slender, sickle-shaped beak, and short tail. The wings, in which the fourth quill is the longest, are also comparatively short, and the legs are slender. The tongue is short, and broad at its tip. The plumage is of a dull olive-brown, streaked with yellowish white on the head, throat, and breast; the wings and tail are deep reddish brown; the eye is brown, the beak reddish brown, and the foot of a dull brownish hue. This species is nine inches and a half long, and eleven and a quarter broad; the wing measures three inches and three-quarters, the tail three inches and a quarter, and the beak two inches and one-third.

"I found this strange bird," says the Prince von Wied, "in the vast, unbroken forests that extend from Ilheos to Bahia, where it lives in pairs upon the trees from which it gathers the insects and beetles upon which it subsists."

THE WOODPECKER TREE-CHOPPER.

The WOODPECKER TREE-CHOPPER (Dendroplex picus) is recognisable by its straight, pointed beak, which is much compressed at its sides, and furnished with a high sharp ridge at its culmen. The wing is comparatively short, the tail long, and the foot large. The plumage is entirely of a reddish brown, the feathers on the head, throat, and breast being enlivened by broad white patches, surrounded by a greyish brown margin. This bird is eight inches long; the wing measures four and the tail three inches.

The Dendroplex picus is found over almost the whole of South America, and everywhere frequents the primitive forests, obtaining its food from the bark of trees, after the manner of the True Woodpeckers. At the conclusion of the breeding season it quits its native fastnesses with its companions, and ventures freely down, even near the abode of man. The voice is clear, but confined to one note. The eggs are laid in the holes of trees.