WJ? YBILL— WR YNECK 



lo 



3J 



England, but seems to be scarcer northward. These three species 

 make their nest upon or very close to the ground, and the build- 

 ing is always domed. Hence they are commonly called " Oven- 

 birds " (page 669), and occasionally, from the grass used in their 

 structure, " Hay-jacks," a name common to the Whitethroat 

 (page 1037) and its allies. 



WR YBILL, Anarhjnchus frontalis, one of the most singular birds 

 known, peculiar to New Zealand and, as Mr. Harting, in an admirable 

 account of its history {Ihis, 1869, pp. 304- 

 310, pi. viii.), shewed, allied to the genus 

 jEgialitis (Killdeer, page 182). It has its 

 English name from its bill being congenitally 

 {Proc. Zool Soc. 1870, p. 674) bent in the 

 middle and diverted to the right side — a 

 formation supposed to give the bird greater 

 facility in seeking its food, chiefly arthropods 

 that lurk under stones, round which it may 

 be seen running from left to right. An excel- 

 lent account of its habits as observed by the 

 late Mr. Potts was given by Sir W. Buller 

 (B. iV. Zeal. pp. 217-219), who also asserts 

 that the black pectoral band worn by the bird 

 is "generally widest on the left side." Be 

 that as it may, it does not detract from the 

 Avonderful nature of this asymmetry of the 

 bill, which is comparable indeed with that wetbill, Adult and chick. 

 found in so large a number of Cetaceans among (From The ms, aud Proc 

 mammals, but with nothing known among "" " ' °'^'^ 

 birds, for neither in the Crossbills nor the members of the genus 

 Loxops, little birds peculiar to the Sandwich Islands, are the bones 

 of the mandibles affected, nor is the distortion of the ear-bones in 

 certain Owls (page 675) externally visible. 



WE YNECK (G-erm. JFendehals, Dutch Draaihalzen, French 

 Torcol), so called from its wonderful way of Avrithing its head and 

 neck, especially when captured, as it may easily be, on its nest in 

 a hollow tree. The lynx ^ torquilla of ornithology, it is a regular 

 summer-visitant to most parts of Europe, generally arriving a few 

 days before the CuCKOW, and it is in many countries known by a 

 name associating it with that well-known bird — as in England 

 " Cuckow's leader " and " Cuckow's mate " — but in some places it is 

 called " Snake-bird," not only from the undulatory motions just 

 mentioned, but from the violent hissing with which it seeks to repel 

 an intruder from its hole.^ 



^ Frequently misspelt, as by Linnteus in his later years, Vvrnx. 



2 The peculiarity was known to Aristotle, and possibly led to the cruel use of 



