in ornithology, the creeper or ox-eye, a genus belonging to the order of picae. The beak is arched, slender, sharp, and triangular; the tongue is sharp at the point; and the feet are of the walking kind, i.e., having the toes open and unconnected. Of this genus near 50 species have been enumerated by ornithologists; but Mr Latham supposes that many now described as species, will be found hereafter to be mere varieties; which, he adds, is no wonder, since many creepers do not gain their full plumage till the third year's moult. The following are a few of the most remarkable:

1. The familiaris, or common ox-eye, is grey above, and white underneath, with brown wings and ten white spots on the ten prime feathers. This bird is found in most parts of Europe, though it is believed nowhere so common as in Britain. It may be thought more scarce than it really is by the less attentive observer; for, supposing it on the body or branch of any tree, the moment it observes any one, it gets to the opposite side, and so on, let a person walk round the tree ever so often. The facility of its running on the bark of a tree, in all directions, is wonderful: This it does with as much ease as a fly on a glass window. Its food is principally, if not wholly, insects, which it finds in the chinks and among the moss of trees. It builds its nest in some hole of a tree, and lays generally five eggs, very rarely more than seven: these are ash-coloured, marked at the end with spots and streaks of a deeper colour; and the shell is observed to be pretty hard. It remains in the places which it frequents during the winter, and builds its nest early in the spring.

2. The hook-billed green creeper has a bill an inch and three quarters long, and bent quite in the shape of a semicircle; the plumage in general is olive green, paler beneath, and somewhat inclined to yellow: the quills and tail are dusky; the legs dusky brown; and the feathers just above the knee, or garter, white. It inhabits the Sandwich Islands in general, and is one of the birds whose plumage the natives make use of in constructing their feathered garments; which, having these olive-green feathers intermixed with the beautiful scarlet and yellow ones belonging to the next species, and yellow-tufted Bee-eater*, make some of the most beautiful coverings of these islanders.

3. The hook-billed red creeper has the bill somewhat less hooked than the last species; the general colour of the plumage is scarlet; wings and tail black. In some birds the forehead is of a buff-colour; and the parts about the head and neck have both a mixture of buff and dusky black, which are suspected to be the birds not yet arrived at their full plumage.

4. The puffilla, or brown and white creeper, according to Edwards, is not above half the size of our European creeper. The upper part of the body is brown, with a changeable glofs of copper; the under parts are white; the quills brown, edged with glossy copper; the tail blackish, the outer feather tipped with white. The bird from which Edwards drew his figure had a label tied to it, by the name of Honey-thief. And that they are fond of honey is manifest, from those who keep birds at the Cape of Good Hope having many forts in large cages, and supplying them with only honey and water; but besides this, they catch a great many flies, which come within the reach of their confinement; and these two make up their whole subsistence; indeed, it has been attempted to transport them further, but the want of flies on board a ship prevented them living more than three weeks; so necessary are insects to their subsistence.

5. The Loteni, or Loten's creeper, has the head, neck, back, rump, scapulars, and upper tail-coverts, of green gold; beneath, from the breast to the vent, of velvet black, which is separated from the green on the neck by a transverse bright violet band, a line and half in breadth: the lesser wing coverts are of this last colour; the middle coverts are green gold; and the greater coverts are very fine black, edged with green gold on the outer edge: the quills are of the same colour, as are also the tail feathers. The female differs in having the breast, belly, sides, thighs, under wing and tail coverts, of a dirty white, spotted with black; and the wings and tail not of so fine a black. It inhabits Ceylon, and Madagascar; and is called Angaladian.

Buffon tells us, that it makes its nest of the down of plants, in form of a cup, like that of a chaffinch, the female laying generally five or six eggs; and that it is sometimes chased by a spider as large as itself, and very voracious, which feizes on the whole brood, and sucks the blood of the young birds.

6. The corulea, or blue creeper, has the head of a most elegant blue; but on each side there is a stripe of black like velvet, in which the eye is placed: the chin and throat are marked with black in the same manner; the rest of the body violet blue. It inhabits Cayenne. Seba says, that it makes its nest with great art. The outside is composed of dry stalks of grass, or such like; but within of very downy soft materials, in the shape of a retort, which it suspends from some weak twig, at the end of a branch of a tree; the opening or mouth downwards, facing the ground: the neck is a foot in length, but the real nest is quite at the top, so that the bird has to climb up this funnel-like opening to get at the nest. Thus it is secure from every harm; neither monkey, snake, nor lizard, daring to venture at the end of the branch, as it would not steadily support them.

7. The cardinal creeper, (Leu. Myr.), has the head, neck, and breast, of crimson colour; down the middle of Certificate of the back is a stripe of the same colour to the rump; the rest of the body is black; and the wings and tail are black. It inhabits the cultivated parts of the island of Tanna; is there called Kuyameta, and lives by sucking the nectar of flowers.

8. The mocking creeper is of the size of the lesser thrush. On the cheeks is a narrow white spot; the head, especially on the crown, is inclined to violet; the plumage in general is olive green, inclining to yellow on the under parts: the quills are brown; the secondaries edged with olive; the colour of the tail is like that of the secondaries, and somewhat forked; the legs are dusky blue, and the claws black. It inhabits both the islands of New Zealand. It has an agreeable note in general; but at times so varies and modulates the voice, that it seems to imitate the notes of all other birds; hence it was called by the English the Mocking-bird. This bird being fond of thrusting its head into the bosom of flowers which have a purplish-coloured farina, much of it adheres to the feathers about the head and bill, and in course gives the appearance above mentioned; but this in time rubs off, and the colour of the head appears the same with the rest of the plumage.