102 YUNX TORQUILLA. 



Length to end of tail 6f inches ; extent of wings 1 1 ; bill 

 along the ridge | ; tarsus |^ ; third toe and claw l-^'g. 



Habits. — The Wryneck arrives from the middle to the end 

 of April, generally preceding the Cuckoo, to which it is nearly 

 allied in form if not in habits, and disperses over the country, 

 extending northward as far as the middle division of Scotland, 

 in which country, however, it is extremely rare. The late Mr 

 George Carfrae brought me for examination one shot near 

 Currie, in Mid-Lothian, in May 1824, and his brother Mr Mac- 

 duff Carfrae obtained a specimen from Fifeshire in 1835. In 

 many of the southern, eastern, and midland districts of Eng- 

 land, it is not very uncommon, but according to Montagu is of 

 rare occurrence in the western parts. 



This beautiful bird seems to be precisely intermediate be- 

 tween the Woodpecker and the Cuckoo, but in its habits and 

 the structure of its tongue it is more allied to the former. That 

 organ is slender, with a horny point, and is capable of being 

 thrust out to a great length in consequence of the extreme elon- 

 gation of the horns of the hyoid bone, which curve over the 

 head and extend to the base of the upper mandible. Two 

 long salivary glands, situated beneath the tongue, open into the 

 mouth by two ducts, and pour forth a copious viscid fluid, 

 which covers the tongue, and thus causes insects, larvre, ants 

 and other small objects forming the food of this species to ad- 

 here to it, when it is ejected for the purpose. " We were 

 enabled," says Montagu, " to examine the manners of this 

 bird minutely by taking a female from her nest, and confining 

 her in a cage for some days. A quantity of mould with emmets 

 and their eggs were given to it ; and it was curious to observe 

 the tongue darted forward and retracted with such velocity, 

 and with such unerring aim, that it never returned without an 

 ant or an egg adhering to it, not transfixed by the horny point, 

 as some have imagined, but retained by a peculiar tenacious 

 moisture, by nature provided for that purpose. While it is 

 feeding the body is motionless, the head only is turned to every 

 side, and the motion of the tongue is so rapid that an ant's egg, 

 which is of a light colour, p.nd more conspicuous than the 



