lYNX TORQUILLA 47 



it is very noisy at times, and its loud ringing or laughing note does 

 not differ appreciably from that of our bird. 



Like its congeners, G. vaillanti deposits its eggs in a fairly deep 

 hole in a tree, which is bored by the bird itself, if one ready-made 

 exactly to its liking is not to be met with. The eggs, according to 

 Loche, are four to five in number, of a glossy pure white, and 

 measures about 27 X 19 ram. Baron v. Erlanger found an egg of 

 this species at Ain-bou-Dries, which he says was of a yellowish shade ; 

 and much more glossy than the eggs of our Green Woodpecker usually 

 are ; its measurements were 26 x 10 ram. 



Subfamily lYNGINiE. 



lYNX TORQUILLA, Linnaeus. 



WRYNECK. 



Yunx torquilla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 172 (1766) ; Malherbe, Cat. Rats. 



d'Ois. Alg. p. 17 (1846) ; Loche, E.vpl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 86 (1867) ; 



Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 170. 

 lynx torquilla, Licht. Cat. Ber. Nat. Bariss. Hamb. p. 15 (1793) ; 



Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii, p. 561 ; Koenig, J. f. 0. 1892, 



p. 370 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 103 ; Erlanger, J.f. 0. 1900, p. 2. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Oum Ali, South Tunisia. 



General colour above silvery-grey, beautifully pencilled and marked 

 with black, browner on wings ; crown barred with brown and white ; 

 nape and back broadly striped down the middle with brown and black ; 

 scapulars slightly striped with black ; primaries dark brown, barred with 

 buff on the outer webs ; tail grey, richly pencilled and barred with irregular 

 blackish-brown bands ; ear-coverts brown, with a light buff stripe above ; 

 throat and upper breast yellowish-buff, finely barred with brown ; abdomen 

 whitish, slightly spotted ; sides greyish-brown, with cross bars of dark 

 brown ; flanks and crissum pale buff, barred with dark brown. 



Iris dark brown ; bill pale brown ; feet greenish-brown. 



Total length 7 inches, wing 3'40, culmen -55, tarsus •75. 



Adult female similar to the male. 



Observations. — There would appear to be a certain amount of individual 

 variation in the coloration of this species, some specimens being darker 



