304 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



being procured. I have obtained It at Madras, Ncllore, Naj^pore, 

 Sau(i;or, and ]\Ihow ; and it is not rare in Lower Bengal, and in the 

 North-Western Provinces. It was sent by Hodgson from the 

 sub-Himalayan region, and has been seen in x\ssam. It is chiefly, 

 perhaps, a cold weather visitant in the South of India ; but it is 

 said to remain all the year further north. It does not climb trees, 

 like the Woodpeckers, habitually at least; though it has been seen 

 to do so rarely, and it then presses its soft tail against the bark. It 

 feeds on various insects, chiefly ants, which it picks off the ground 

 sometimes, or off the boughs of trees. Montague describes one 

 feeding on an ant-hill as a very interesting spectacle. The tongue 

 was directed forwards and retracted with extraordinary rapidity, and 

 with such unerring aim that it never returned without an ant or a 

 pupa adhering to it ; and he described the motion of the tongue as 

 so rapid, that an ant's egg (pupa), which is of a light colour and 

 more conspicuous than the tongue, has somewhat the appearance 

 of moving towards the mouth by attraction, as a needle flies to 

 a magnet. 



Its flight is tolerably speedy. It has a peculiar plaintive Kestrel- 

 like call. It breeds in holes of trees, laying several polished white 

 eoo-s. Mr. Blyth says — "Instinctively trusting to the close resem- 

 blance of its tints to the situations on which it alights, it will He 

 close, and sometimes even suffer itself to be taken by the hand : on 

 such occasions, it will twirl its neck in the most extraordinary 

 manner, rolling the eyes, and erecting the feathers of the crown 

 and throat, occasionally raising its tail, and performing the most 

 ludicrous movements : then taking advantage of the surprise of 

 the spectator, it will suddenly dart off like an arrow." 



189. Yunx Indica, Gould. 



P. Z. S., 1849, p. 112— Gould, Birds of Asia, pi. 



The Chesnut-throated Wryneck. 



Descr. — Above pale brown, finely freckled with grey, and 

 blotched, particularly down the back of the neck, on the centre of 

 the back, and on the wing-coverts, with brownish-black ; primaries 

 brown, crossed on their outer webs with regular bands of deep 



