[4] See [Appendix, 3].
V
THE CREEPER FAMILY
(Certhiidæ)[5]
This is a family of birds who creep; that is, they appear not to hop up a tree trunk like a woodpecker, or walk up like a nuthatch, but they hug close to the bark with claws and tail, and seem really to creep.
The one member of the family in this country is called the Brown Creeper. He is a little fellow in streaks and stripes of brown, and he looks so much like the tree trunks that one can hardly see him. He has a slender, curved bill, just the thing to poke into cracks in the bark, and pull out the insects and eggs hidden there. His tail feathers are curious. They have sharp points on the ends, so that he can press them against the bark, and help support himself.
The creeper's way of getting up a trunk is to begin near the ground, and go round and round the trunk till he reaches the lowest branch. Then he flings himself off, and flies to the roots of another tree, and goes up that in the same way. A brown creeper once came into a house, and found it so comfortable, and food so plentiful, and people so kind, that he stayed. He was very tame, and his great pleasure was to climb up a man's leg or a woman's skirt, exactly as he climbs a tree trunk, going round and round.
