CERTIDADX, the Creeper Family, a family of birds placed by Mr. Vigors under his order Seansorer, or Climbing Birds. "The genus Certhia," writes that author (' Linn. Trans.,' vol. xiv. p. 4G1), "as originally instituted by 'Amami!, contained, besides the true Ccrthia and its congeners, which form the extreme family of the preceding tribe (Picker), all those birds whose slender and gradually curved bills and delicate formation of body, added to their practice of employing their tongues in taking their food, indicated a strong affinity to each other, and which hare since been particularised by authors under the various names of Neetarinio, annyrio, Dreponis, ke. To the group thus known and described by the Swedish natu ralist, later ornithologists, who have strictly followed his steps, have added another, discovered since his time in Australasia, similar in habits and manners, and now distinguished by the generic title of ifeliphaga. The whole of the birds, however, thus united by close affinities, and as such generally brought together by systematic writers into one conterminous series, are decidedly divisible into two distinct groups, naturally arranging themselves 'under different sub divisions of the order. The family of Certhialhe live upon animal food ; while the remaining genera of the Minima!' Certhia subsist chiefly upon vegetable juices. The tongues of each, though similar in being more or less extensible, and in being the medium through which they are supplied with food, are equally distinct as the nature of the food itself. Those of the former are sharp and of a spear-like form, as if to transfix the insects which are their prey ; while those of the latter aro divided into tubular filaments, which appear exclu sively adapted to the purposes of suction. In other particulars they exhibit an equal difference. The climb, and their feet are of a conformable structure; but the feet of the auctorial birds are not only iu general unsuited to that purpose, but they become gradually weaker, and of less use as they come nearer the type of the tribe, where they are so short and slightly formed as to be serviceable only in perching, when the bird is at rest. . . . . The two groups of the Unmoral Certhia are disposed in the separate departments to which the distinct nature of their food and habits more immediately unites them; while at the same time, by their forming the extremes of their respective tribes, and touching each other at the corresponding points of the circles in which they are arranged, their obvious affinities are preserved inviolate.
"in addition," continues Mr. Vigors, "to Dendrocolaptes, and the true Certhia of the present day, the family before us consists of a variety of genera which are strongly united by their corre sponding habits. Among these, Climacteric, Temm., and Orthortyx, Temm., preserve the strong shafts of the tail-feathers, which are carried on to them from the true I'ici. This construction gradually disappears in the remaining groups of the family ; but the strong hind toe, and the tongue more or less extensile, and serving to spear their prey, is still conspicuous. Among such groups we may particu larise the Tichodroma, M., and ifimpa, Linn., together with the Linnman Sitto, and the contenninoms form of :Vamps, Ill. Here also may be associated the Opetiorhyneltus and Anabales of M. Temminck, as also the Oxyrkinchas of the same author. The genus may be observed to be connected -with those groups of the present fiunily which are united with the genus rime of the preceding ; it is a perfect Wryneck, as justly asserted by M. Temminck, with a Creeper's foot." Mr. Swainson Fauna Boreali-Americana,' vol. ii.) places the genus Troglodytes (Wrens) among the Certhiadm, which family he also places under the Scansores.
Cuvier, the Prince of Canino, and Lesson, arrange the Ccrthiathe under the Tenuirostres.
The character of the Family is as follows :-13ill sometimes very much curved, sometimes but little, sometimes nearly straight, rounded, slightly compressed, pointed; tongue simple, cartilaginous at the extremity; tail-feathers generally worn nt the end. (Lesson.) The following are the genera enumerated by Lesson : Certhia. Bill modetately long, more or less curved, triangular, compressed, slender, pointed ; nostrils basal, partially closed by a membrane ; wings short, fourth quill longest; tail-feathers stiff, a little curved, pointed at the end.