THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKEK. 299 



lengthened description. It is less frequently seen than 

 either of the other two common species, but is in all 

 probability no less abundant, its smaller size rendering 

 it less likely to be noticed. It lays its eggs on the rotten 

 wood, which it has either pecked, or which has fallen, 

 from the holes in trees ; they are not to be distinguished 

 from those of the Wryneck. 



THE WEYI^ECK. 



YUNX TORQUILLA. 



Upper plumage reddish grey, irregularly spotted and lined with brown and 

 black ; a broad black and browoi band from the back of the head to the back ; 

 throat and breast yellowish red, with dusky transverse rays ; rest of the under 

 plumage whitish, witli arrow shaped black spots ; outer web of the quills 

 marked with rectangular alternate black and yellowish red spots ; tail-feathers 

 barred with black zigzag bands ; beak and feet olive brown. Length six inches 

 and a half, breadth eleven inches. Eggs glossy white. 



The note of the Wryneck is unmusical, and is so 

 peculiar that it can be confounded with none of the 

 natural sounds of the country ; a loud, rapid, harsh 

 cry on one note repeated several tunes by a bird about 

 the size of a lark may be referred without hesitation 

 to the Wryneck. Yet it is a pleasant sound after all, 

 for the untuneful minstrel is the same bird which is 

 known by the name of " Cuckoo's Mate," and so is asso- 

 ciated with May- days, pleasant jaunts into the country, 

 hay-fields, the memory of past happy days and the hope 

 of others to come. This name it derives not from any 

 fondness it exhibits for the society of the cuckoo, as it is 

 a bird of remarkably solitary habits, but because it both 

 arrives and departs at the same time with the cuckoo. 

 Not less singular than its note is its plumage, which, 

 though unmarked by gaudiness of colouring, is very beau- 

 tiful, being richly embroidered as it were with brown and 

 black on a reddish grey ground. In habits, it bears no 

 marked resemblance to the Woodpeckers ; it is not much 

 given to climbing, and never taps the trunks of trees ; yet 



