300 



PICID^. 



it does seek its food on decayed trees, and employs its 

 long horny tongue in securing insects. Willughby states 

 that it actually impales ants on the sharp point of its 

 tongue, but recent observation has proved that this state- 

 ment is inaccurate. It indeed darts its tongue with in- 

 conceivable rapidity into an ant-liill and brings it out as 

 rapidly, with the insects and their eggs adhering to its 





THE WKYNKCK. 



viscid point. These constitute its principal food, so that 

 it is seen more frequently feeding on the ground than 

 hunting on trees. But by far the strangest peculiarity 

 of the Wryneck, stranger than its note and even than its 

 worm-like tongue, is the wondrous pliancy of its neck, 

 which one might almost imagine to be furnished with a 

 ball and socket joint. A country -boy who had caught one of 



