File:The birds of Australia (16839364916) (cropped).jpg

PLATE "V.
CLIMACTERIS RUFA .Gould).
R UFO US TREE- CREEPER.
IF it were not fur the rufous tint pervading all the colouring of this bird, it might easily be
mistaken for Climacteris Scandens, to which it bears a great resemblance as regards shape
and contour.
It is very common in Western Australia, especially in the forests of Eucalypti, upon which
trees it seeks for insects, ascending the smooth bark with the greatest ease. It is also, however
often to be seen on the ground searching for ants and their larvae.
When disturbed it utters a shrill and piercing cry, which sounds most weird and strange in
the still and silent forest.
During the breeding season it constructs, far down in the hollow of a dead branch, a nest
of soft grasses, lined with down, in which three eggs are laid, of a pale salmon-colour, with blotches
of reddish-brown thickly distributed over the surface.
The male has the crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings, dark brown ; tail,
pale brown ; line over the eyes, lores, ear-coverts, throat and under surface of the shoulder, rust-
brown ; chest, rufous-brown, each feather with a stripe of buffv-white, bounded on each side with a
line of black, down the centre ; the remainder of the under surface deep rust-red, with a line of
white down the centre of each feather, this line being lost, however, on the vent and flanks ; irides,
dark brown ; bill and feet, blackish-brown.