WRYBILL—WRVNECK 1053 
England, but seems to be scarcer northward. These three species 
make their nest upon or very close to the ground, and the build- 
ing is always domed. Hence they are commonly called “OvxEN- 
BIRDS” (page 669), and occasionally, from the grass used in their 
structure, “Hay-jacks,’ a name common to the WHITETHROAT 
(page 1037) and its allies. 
WRYBILL, Anarhynchus frontalis, one of the most singular birds 
known, peculiar to New Zealand and, as Mr. Harting, in an admirable 
account of its history (Jizs, 1869, pp. 304- 
310, pl. vui.), shewed, allied to the genus 
Afgialitis (KILLDEER, page 182). It has its 
English name from its bill being congenitally 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 674) bent in the 
middle and diverted to the right side—a 
formation supposed to give the bird greater 
facility in seeking its food, chiefly arthropods 
that lurk under stones, round which it may 
be seen running from left to right. An excel- 
lent account of its habits as observed by the 
late Mr. Potts was given by Sir W. Buller 
(B. N. Zeal. pp. 217-219), who also asserts 
that the black pectoral band worn by the bird 
is “generally widest on the left side.” Be 
that as it may, it does not detract from the 
wonderful nature of this asymmetry of the sii AAMAS STUN 
bill, which is comparable indeed with that wavars, Aautt and Chick. 
found in so large a number of Cetaceans among (From The Ibis, and Proc, 
mammals, but with nothing known among 7°? 
birds, for neither in the CROSSBILLS nor the members of the genus 
Loxops, little birds peculiar to the Sandwich Islands, are the bones 
of the mandibles affected, nor is the distortion of the ear-bones in 
certain Owls (page 675) externally visible. 
WRYNECK (Germ. Wendchals, Dutch Draaihalzen, French 
Torcol), so called from its wonderful way of writhing its head and 
neck, especially when captured, as it may easily be, on its nest in 
a hollow tree. The Jynx! torquilla of ornithology, it is a regular 
summer-visitant to most parts of Europe, generally arriving a few 
days before the CucKow, and it is in many countries known by a 
name associating it with that well-known bird—as in England 
“ Cuckow’s leader” and “ Cuckow’s mate ”—but in some places it is 
called ‘‘Snake-bird,” not only from the undulatory motions just 
mentioned, but from the violent hissing with which it seeks to repel 
an intruder from its hole.? 
1 Frequently misspelt, as by Linneus in his later years, Yuna. 
* The peculiarity was known to Aristotle, and possibly led to the cruel use of 
