1054 WYPE 
The very unmistakable note of the Wryneck, without having 
any musical merit, is always pleasant to hear as a harbinger of 
spring. It is merely a repetition of what may be syllabled que, que, 
que, many times in succession, rapidly uttered at first, but gradually 
slowing and in a continually falling key. This, however, is only 
heard during a few weeks, and for the rest of the bird’s stay in 
Europe it seems to be mute. It feeds almost exclusively on insects, 
especially on ants, and may often be seen on the ground, busily 
engaged at their nests. Somewhat larger than a Sparrow, its 
plumage is not easily described, being beautifully variegated with 
black, brown, buff and grey—the last produced by minute specks 
of blackish-brown on a light ground—the darker markings disposed 
in patches, vermiculated bars, freckles, streaks or arrow-heads—and 
the whole blended most harmoniously, so as to recall the coloration 
of a NIGHTJAR or of a Woopcock. The Wryneck builds no nest, 
but commonly lays its translucent white eggs on the bare wood of a 
hole in a tree, and it is one of the few wild birds that, by abstracting 
its eges day after day, will go on laying, and thus upwards of forty 
have been taken from a single hole—but the proper complement is 
from six to ten.1 As regards Britain, the bird seems to be becoming 
rarer, owing probably to the destruction of hollow trees in orchards, 
but is most common in the south-east, its numbers decreasing rapidly 
towards the west and north, so that in Cornwall and Wales and 
beyond Cheshire and Yorkshire its occurrence is but rare, while it 
appears only by accident in Scotland and Ireland. 
Three other species of Jynz are recognized by Mr. Hargitt 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xviii. p. 560), the so-called J. japonica being in- 
distinguishable from /. torguilla; while that designated, through a 
mistake in the locality assigned to it, 1. indica, is identical with the 
I. pectoralis of South Africa. Near to this is J. pulchricollis, discovered 
by Emin Pasha in the east of the Bar-el-Djebel (Ibis, 1884, p. 28, pl. 
ii.). Another distinet African species is the J. xquatorialis, originally 
described from Abyssinia. As already stated (WOODPECKER, p. 1049), 
they form a subfamily Jyngine of the Picidx, from the more normal 
groups of which they differ but little in internal structure, but much 
in coloration and in having the tail-quills flexible, or at least not 
stiffened to serve as props as in the climbing Picine. 
WYPE (Sw. Vipa) often Pie-wype, a name of the LAPWING. 
the bird as a love-charm,; to which several classical writers refer, as Pindar (Pyth. 
iv. 214; Nem. iv. 35), Theocritus (iv. 17, 30), and Xenophon (Memorabilia, 111. 
xi. 17,18). In one part at least of China a name, Shay-ling, signifying ‘‘ Snake’s 
neck,” is given to it (bis, 1875, p. 125). 
1 Dr. Giinther (Jbis, 1890, p. 411) has noticed a curious pad, beset with 
tubercles, on the heel of the newly-hatched bird, 
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