CERTIIIA, the creeper, in natural his tory, a genus of birds of the order Picx. Generic character : bill sharp-pointed, slender, and incurvated ; nostrils small ; tongue varying in shape; legs somewhat stout ; toes three before and one behind, the latter large ; claws long and hooked ; tail of twelve feathers.
These birds are distinguished from humming birds, with which they have sometimes been confounded, by the cir cumstances of their being to be met with in every quarter of the world ; by their bill universally terminating in a point; and by their feeding in a great degree, though not exclusively, on insects. There are to less than forty-nine species, of which the principal are, C. familiaris, the tree-creeper of Albi nus. This bird is scarcely larger than the crested wren, and is to be observed in various parts of Europe, but especially in England. It runs on the bark of a tree with extreme ease and rapidity, and the instant it perceives a human being near, it conceals itself on the opposite side of the trunk or branch, repeating this move. ment according to the corresponding movement of the person whose notice It wishes to avoid, and thus perpetually en deavouring, and almost in all cases with success, to evade the observation of its pursuer. It feeds almost solely on in
sects, which it finds in the hollows, and among the moss of trees.
C. Lotenia, or Loten's creeper, is a native of Ceylon and Madagascar. It builds its nest of the down of plants, and is subjected to the hostility of a spider in those countries, nearly as large as it self, which pursues it with extreme ar dour, and delights in sucking the blood of its young.
C. ccerulea, or blue creeper, is an inha bitant of Cayenne, and is remarkable for the ingenuity it exhibits in the construc tion of its nest, by which it precludes any attack from the monkeys and snakes, as as lizards, which abound in that country. This nest is suspended from some slender twig at the end of a branch, to which those animals dare not venture, as it would be too weak to support them. The entrance to the nest is towards the ground, and about a foot distant from the body of it, to which the bird climbs through a narrow neck of this extraordi nary length.
C. sannto, or mocking creeper, is found in New-Zealand, has an agreeable note, and can so modulate its voice, as seemingly to imitate the notes of all birds: hence it is called the mocking creeper. See Plate IV. Aces, fig. 3.