1 8 Allen's naturalist's lirrary. 



bourhood of London regularly on migration, and is heard every 

 spring in my own garden at Chiswick. It even nests in the 

 western suburbs, and, by constant care in driving off the 

 hostile Starling, Dr. Giinther has succeeded in protecting the 

 Wrynecks in his garden at Kew, to which the birds returned 

 for several years in succession. Like its relations, the Wood- 

 peckers, the Wryneck is a very shy bird, and its peculiar note 

 is the chief indication of its presence in the neighbourhood. 

 It is met with in all kinds of situations, but is most commonly 

 seen in orchards and ])ark-lands, and it frequents the vicinity 

 of habitations in a much more familiar degree than do any of 

 the Woodpeckers ; so that it will not disdain to accept the 

 accommodation of nesting-boxes put up in the trees for its 

 especial benefit. 



Although a true member of the Family Picidce, by reason of 

 the structure of its foot and its extensile tongue, the Wryneck 

 is not given to climb trees in the same way as the above men- 

 tioned birds, as its soft-plumaged tail would be of no service to 

 it in climbing, and it is therefore often to be seen perched on 

 a branch like an ordinary Passerine bird, while it not unfre- 

 quently visits the ground. On occasion, however, it runs up 

 a tree exactly like any true Woodpecker, and I once shot a 

 Wryneck as it was climbing up the woodwork of the Great 

 Western Railway bridge at Bourne End on the Thames. 



The food of the Wryneck consists entirely of insects, and 

 ants and their eggs constitute its favourite food. Although, 

 from its feeding so much on the ground, it accumulates, in a 

 state of nature, a considerable amount of grit into its stomach, 

 I have found young Wrynecks very difficult to rear, since after 

 a time, the rape seed and soaked bread, which suits them so 

 well for a time, ultimately irritates their tongue to such an ex- 

 tent as to produce inflammation, and I have always had to let 

 my pretty pets fly, that they might find their proper food for 

 themselves in the woods. 



The name of " Snake-Bird," often applied to the present 

 species, is supposed to be derived from the curious way in 

 which a wounded or captured bird writhes and twists its long 

 neck about, while the darting out of the tongue has doubtless 

 had somethino- to do with the idea of a snake. 



