WRYKECK 251 



daily visited either by myself or one of my brothers, and 

 each day a white egg was carried away, until the number 

 had arrived at twenty-two ! After which, although we 

 frequently visited the tree, not another egg was laid. 

 Once or twice only was I able to catch a sight of the 

 bird, which proved to be what is here provincially called 

 a " Snake-Bird," and only known amongst the lower 

 orders by that name, and which I found to be the Wry- 

 neck {lynx torquilla). I am not aware if the term 

 "Snake-Bird" is peculiar to Kent. The reason of the 

 Wryneck having this name assigned to it is, I should 

 imagine, either from the hissing and really snake-like 

 noise made by the young before they leave the hollow 

 tree in which they have been hatched, or from the rather 

 snake-like appearance of the old birds themselves, in 

 some of their motions, or very probably from a com- 

 bination of both these facts. The name certainly has 

 more of truth in it than provincial names generally have. 

 I have never heard of an instance of a Wryneck so per- 

 severingly laying, when regularly robbed of its eggs ; 

 and indeed there are but few birds, I believe, which 

 would have continued to lay more than double their 

 usual number of eggs. I have heard of instances of a 

 similar character in the common Wren, and in one or 

 two of the Tit tribe ; but this is the only one that ever 

 came under my own immediate notice." 



Mr. W. H. Power, in his Birds Observed at Bainham, 

 says : " The Wryneck was not quite so common this 

 year (1865) as usual ; in general it is to be heard all over 

 the orchards, and I have several times, by means of a 

 call, brought three at once into a tree within a yard of 

 my head, where they would remain for some time, staring 

 about in the most ludicrous manner. Their note is not 



