3l8 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



roots, grass, and moss are the materials employed, 

 with a lining of wool, feathers, and strips of inside 

 bark, often that of the birch tree. The eggs — six 

 to nine — are white, spotted, zoned and blotched 

 with reddish-brown and dull purple. Incubation is 

 assiduously performed by the female. The food 

 consists principally of insects and occasionally of 

 the seeds of the Scotch fir. This species is found in 

 Norway in the lower coniferous woods to the 

 Trondjhems-fjord, and eastward in Sweden ; Russia 

 and across Siberia to the Pacific, as far north as trees 

 flourish. Southwards it is found in Japan, Northern 

 China, and Asia down to the Himalayas ; westward 

 in Persia, Asia Minor, Algeria, and northwards 

 throughout Central Europe, wherever suitable 

 localities present themselves." 



The Wryneck. 



Order, Picarice. Fatnily, Picidce. 



This beautiful and delicately marked species, the 

 pencilled plumage on the back of which is quite 

 worth carefully noticing, is one of our early migrants, 

 arriving in the south of England sometimes by the 

 middle of March, though its usual advent, speaking 

 generally, would not be before the middle of April. 

 It has acquired the name of the "Cuckoo's Mate," 

 I suppose, from the fact that as soon as its arrival 

 has been noticed and recorded by naturalists, who 

 take an interest in such matters, the Cuckoo may be 

 expected to follow a few days afterwards. The 



