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height, its clear qui,, qui, qui, first attracting my attention. Its 

 " Partridge-colouring " is more suggestive of the soft marbling 

 of the Nightjar, but its habits are those of the Woodpeckers, 

 except that when on a trunk the soft feathers of its tail give it 

 no support. Its alarm note is an angry kit, kii, kit, and 

 according to Seebohm it will rattle or drum on a bough like a 

 woodpecker. Though its feet are adapted for climbing it 

 usually perches across a bough (Plate 109), and feeds in the 

 upper branches, whipping insects off the leaves with its vermi- 

 form and sticky tongue like a chameleon. It is as fond of ants 

 as the Green Woodpecker, and thrusts its tongue into the 

 burrows in the nests to draw out the white pupa?, or settling 

 on a trunk or bough intercepts the insects on their arboreal 

 journeys. One bird, when on passage, was attracted by the 

 insects imprisoned in a street lamp in a busy Cheshire 

 town and, though managing to find an entrance, was itself 

 unable to escape. Its captor, describing the bird to me, said 

 that it raised its '" top knot " and twisted its neck slowly round 

 to such an extent that he feared it was injured. This snake-like 

 writhing of the neck, from which it gets its ordinary name and 

 also the name " Snake-bird," is one of its peculiarities ; when 

 clinging to a trunk it twists and turns its head without moving 

 its body. When in the nest it hisses if disturbed, and this, 

 coupled with its habits of darting out its tongue at an intruder, 

 are snake-like habits sufficient to alarm other than human foes. 

 Since the days when Sir Thomas Browne quaintly commented 

 upon its apparent " vertigo " and " fitts," its habit of feigning 

 death when handled has been freely commented upon, but the 

 lamp-trapped captive did not employ these wiles. 



The nest is in a hole in a tree, steep bank or even masonry, 

 but is seldom, if ever, excavated by the bird itself; artificial 

 nesting boxes are appreciated. A pair, after turning out a 

 pair of Great Tits from one nesting box, reared their brood in 

 another, and then hammered through the side of their own 



