8o BIRDS OF THE BRITISfl EMPIRE. 



life with a red cap, but the bright colours disappear at the 

 first moult. (Abridged from Sir H. Maxwell's account of the 

 woodpecker in the Tracts of the Society for the Protection 

 of Birds.) 



THE WRYNECK. 



This bird ditiers in a few respects from the wood- 

 peckers, but scarcely enough to be constituted a famil}^ 

 genus, and species all in one, as certain authorities have 

 done ; however, as we have elected to follow them for the 

 present, M-e proceed. 



Fam i ly — lyngidcu. 



Genus — lynx. I. torqitilla. 



The general colour is brown, but diversified with numer- 

 ous markings of black, dark brown, and brownish yellow, 

 which gives it a speckled apjiearance ; the throat is 

 yellowish buff, mottled witli dark grc}' ; the lower breast 

 white, spotted with small black " arrow-heads " pointing 

 downwards ; these are continued more thickly on the bellv, 

 which has a yellowish tinge. The tail has a slate-blue 

 ground colour, thickly covered with minute black spots, 

 and is crossed by three brown bands tipped with black. 

 The bills, legs, and feet are yellowish grey. The female 

 resembles the male, but lier colouring is not so bright. 

 Length, 7 inclies ; tail, 8.^ 



The wryneck is migratory, arriving in April and depart- 

 ing in August or September. It occurs, sparsely, in Great 

 Britain, but lias not been reported from Ireland. 



It feeds exclusively on insects, chieily ants, for collecting 

 which its long tongue, the end of which is covered with a 

 glutinous secretion, is extremely useful ; it is also an adept 



