PICIDE. 255 
Wryneck, Yunx torquilla. The Wryneck is al- 
ways included amongst the Picide, although differ- 
ing from them in some respects, especially the tail- 
feathers, which are not strong and pointed like those 
of the true Woodpeckers, but, on the contrary, soft 
and somewhat rounded. Although this bird has 
two toes in front and two behind, it is by no means 
so decided a climber as the rest of the family in 
which it is included. In Guernsey, where I have 
had most opportunities of watching this bird, I have 
generally seen it perched in the ordinary way on a 
small branch of a tree, or low bush, or hedge. It is 
@ summer visitor, arriving in this country in the 
middle of April, about the same time as the Cuckoo, 
from which circumstance it has had the name of 
* Cuckoo’s Mate” given it. In Guernsey, where it 
is, as I said, very common, it is always called the 
“ Mackerel Bird,’ as it arrives about the time the 
mackerel are in season: another very common local 
name for this bird is the “Snake Bird,” from the 
peculiar noise it makes when disturbed, and from 
the snake-like manner in which it occasionally moves 
its head. 
Though in general not amongst the earlier 
summer migrants, not arriving till the middle of 
April, and departing again at the end of August or 
beginning of September, occasional stragglers appear 
to arrive rather earlier, and also to make a later 
stay, the 19th of March being the earliest note I 
Z2 
