~ TS 
WRYNECK. 375 
management may be induced to lay an extraordinary number of eggs in a 
single season. Like the Starling the hen bird will continue to lay after 
her eggs are removed, and many instances are on record of great numbers 
of eggs having been taken from a single nest. One of the most ex- 
traordinary cases of this kind was communicated to the ‘ Zoologist ’ 
(1872, p. 3227; and 1876, p. 5081) by Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun. In 
1872 Mr. Frank Norgate took forty-two eggs from one nest of this bird 
in an old stump. In 1873 the female again laid forty-two eggs; but in 
1874 her reproductive powers were apparently exhausted, only one egg was 
laid; and in 1875 the place was deserted. 
The Wryneck is a very close sitter. Both male and female assist in 
incubating the eggs, and often remain on them until removed by the hand 
of the collector. Its common name has been derived from its singular 
habit of twisting its head from side to side like a snake im its nesting-hole 
or when wounded. It will also hiss in an alarming manner if surprised 
on its eggs, and when caught has been known to feign death—a, habit 
alluded to by Sir Thomas Browne, in his ‘ Account of Birds found in 
Norfolk,’ who writes that it was “ marvellously subject to the vertigo,” 
and was “‘ sometimes taken in these fits.” 
When the young are hatched they are fed and tended with great care 
by their anxious parents, and when able to leave the nest are accompanied 
by them for some litile time. The Wryneck only rears one brood in 
the year; but, as already noticed, if its first clutch of eggs are taken 
others will be laid, and it is such necessarily late broods that are some- 
times met with late in the summer. 
The general colour of the upper parts of the Wryneck, including the 
tail, is greyish white, mottled all over with brownish grey, and obscurely 
barred and streaked with dark brown; the wings are brown, barred with 
dull chestnut on the outer webs of the feathers. The underparts are 
buff, each feather having a narrow dark-brown subterminal bar or spot. 
Bill, legs, and feet brown; irides dark brown. ‘There are no variations 
in the plumage attributable to age, sex, or season worthy of notice. 
