Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/89

76  being sometimes accumulated to fill up a wide rent, so as to form a firm base. Six or eight ash-coloured eggs, marked with dusky reddish spots, are here deposited, on which the female sits very intently, keeping her place during the near presence of an intruder, but watching an opportunity to dart silently away, if his attention is for a moment averted.

The voice of the Creeper is a monotonous cry, not very loud, but frequently and suddenly repeated, especially during its short flights from tree to tree. At the season of incubation the old birds are more than usually noisy. The food on which it subsists consists principally of small beetles, bugs, and flies that habitually conceal themselves in the crevices of bark and similar places: but Wilson mentions having frequently found in its stomach the seeds of the pine tree, as well as a large quantity of gravel. The foot and tail of this species show a beautiful adaptation of structure to peculiarities of habit.

The upper mandible of the beak in this Tribe is notched on each side near the tip; in one Family, that of the Shrikes, this indentation is very decided, and accompanied with a projecting tooth, so as to present a connecting link with the Accipitres, the beak also being very strong, hooked, and sharp-pointed, and the habits of the birds ferocious and carnivorous. But even in these the