12 Baby Birds at Home 



her name has been derived. If you should 

 be bold enough to thrust your hand down 

 to the bottom of her breeding hole and 

 capture her, Mrs. Wryneck will, upon being 

 withdrawn, most likely give you a surprise. 

 Stretching out her neck and twisting her 

 head over her back she will, with closed 

 eyes and ruffled crown, pretend to be 

 dead. As soon as you have been taken 

 off your guard, however, by this clever 

 piece of shamming, she straightens out her 

 wry neck and instantly flies away. 



This bird, like the woodpeckers, pos- 

 sesses a very long worm-like tongue. It 

 is horny at the tip and supplied with a 

 sticky substance to which ants and other 

 insects adhere when touched. This clever 

 contrivance enables the bird to capture prey 

 quite out of sight in tunnels and galleries. 



A young Wryneck may frequently be 

 seen thrusting its head out of the nesting 

 hole and anxiously looking for its father, 

 or mother, with more food. Upon leaving 

 the old home the chicks can cling to the 

 rough bark with their claws, and run with 

 ease up the trunk of the tree, inside of 

 which they have been reared. 



