inhabiting grassy plains or marshes study concealment, and, when forced
to rise, flutter away just above the surface, like flying-fish
frightened from the water, and, when they have gone thirty or forty
yards, dip into the grass or reeds again. Their life is thus one of
perpetual danger in a far greater degree than with other passerine
families, such as warblers, tyrants, finches, thrushes, &c.; while an
exclusively insect diet, laboriously extracted from secret places, and
inability to change their climate, contribute to make their existence a
hard one. It has been with these birds as with human beings, bred in
"misfortune's school," and subjected to keen competition. One of their
most striking characteristics is a methodical, plodding, almost painful
diligence of manner while seeking their food, so that when viewed side
by side with other species, rejoicing in a gayer plumage and stronger
flight, they seem like sober labourers that never rest among holiday
people bent only on enjoyment. That they are able not only to maintain
their existence, but to rise to the position of a dominant family, is
due to an intelligence and adaptiveness exceeding that of other kinds,
and which has been strengthened, and perhaps directly results from the
hard conditions of their life.

How great their adaptiveness and variability must be when we find that
every portion of the South American continent is occupied by them; for
there is really no climate, and no kind of soil or vegetation, which
does not possess its appropriate species, modified in colour, form, and
habits to suit the surrounding conditions. In the tropical region, so
rich in bird life of all kinds, in forest, marsh, and savanna, they are
everywhere abundant--food is plentiful there; but when we go to higher
elevations avd cold sterile deserts, where their companion families of
the tropics dwindle away and disappear, the creepers are still present,
for they are evidently able to exist where other kinds would starve. On