ivngiN/t;. 



261 



THE WRYNECK. 

 Iynx torquilla, Linnxus. 



This bird resembles the Nightjars in its delicately pencilled 

 plumage, though allied to the Woodpeckers by its anatomical struc- 

 ture. It is a regular spring-visitor to England, sometimes arriving 

 in the south by the middle of March, though usually about the first 

 half of April ; for this reason it is often called ' Cuckoo's-mate ' or 

 '-leader': names which have their equivalent in several European 

 languages. In the south-eastern counties it is more numerous than 

 in the west, and it is rare in Wales ; Lancashire has seldom been 

 visited by it of late years, and to Cumberland it is now merely a 

 straggler ; in Yorkshire and Durham it is very local, and it becomes 

 rare in Northumberland. Statements that it has nested in Scotland 

 require confirmation, but at intervals it has been known to wander 

 as far north as Caithness, the Orkneys, and the Shetlands ; also to 

 the Faeroes. In Ireland it was taken in co. Waterford in the sum- 

 mer of 1878, and on the Arran Islands, off Galway Bay, on October 

 6th 1886. By the latter part of September it has usually left 

 England for the south, but Mr. A. II. Upcher asserts that he saw 

 and heard one in Norfolk on January ist 1884. 



In Scandinavia and Finland the Wryneck has been found up to 



