WRYNECK. 189 



end of September. As the date of its arrival is within 

 a day or two of the arrival of the Cuckoo, it is often 

 called " Cuckoo's Mate " or " Cuckoo's Messenger ". 

 It receives its name " Wryneck " from the strange 

 manner it has of turning its head from side to side like 

 a snake, so as to give it a twisted appearance. From 

 this fact, too, and from the loud hissing it will make if 

 surprised on its nest, it is sometimes called the Snake- 

 bird. 



It is a fairly common bird in the southern and east- 

 ern counties of England ; in the rest of Great Britain 

 it is very rare indeed, and in Ireland almost unknown. 



Woods, orchards, and gardens where there are 

 plenty of trees are its favourite haunts. It feeds on 

 insects, and may sometimes be seen clinging to the 

 trunk of a tree, but it never climbs like the Wood- 

 peckers, and most of its food is obtained on the ground, 

 among the ant-hills. These it turns over with its 

 beak, and devours the inhabitants and their eggs by 

 thousands, collecting them on its sharp-pointed tongue, 

 to which they adhere by the glutinous matter with 

 which it is covered. 



The Wryneck has a peculiar note, a sort of " quick, 

 quick " uttered loudly several times successively, which 

 has been compared to the cry of the Kestrel. It has 

 been reared in confinement, but this is a very difficult 

 matter, and the probability is that the bird will die. 



The plumage is not showy. The general colour of 

 the upper parts is greyish white, mottled all over with 

 brown, and barred and streaked with dark brown ; 

 the under parts are buff, each feather having a small 

 dark-brown spot. 



The Wryneck as a rule returns each year to its 

 same breeding site, and in all probability pairs for life. 



