BROWN BIRDS WITH SPOTTED BREASTS. 89 



creeps like a Woodpecker up the trunk of a tree in its 

 search for ants, which it licks up with a lightning flick 

 of its extensile tongue. With the same object in view 

 it may oftener be seen on the ground where ant-hills 

 are. While thus engaged, the Wryneck writhes its 

 flexile neck about with rapid and apparently violent 

 motions used by no other bird. Although at such 

 times the neck seems unduly long, the bird as a whole 

 is of the somewhat ' stumpy ' build of habitual trunk- 

 climbers. The Wryneck practises perching like that 

 other soft-tailed, trunk-climbing bird, the Nuthatch, 

 and is far less given to trunk-climbing than the stiff- 

 tailed Woodpeckers. Still, its eggs are placed, like those 

 of the Woodpeckers, in a cavity in the trunk of a tree. 



TREE-CREEPER— 4| inches. Also a bird of very finely 

 variegated plumage, and also — but exclusively — a 

 trunk-climber ; nincli smaller than the Wryneck, and 

 with under parts silky-white ; bill slender, curved. 



NOTES TO 'BROWN BIRDS WITH SPOTTED 

 BREASTS.' 



CURLEW.— 21-26 inches. Moorland breeder and shore feeder ; 

 brown above and spotted white below, with enormous curved 

 bill. See under ' Birds with Long, Curved Bills.' 



WPIIMBREL. — 17 inches. Marked like the above, and having 

 similarly large, curved bill. A shore and inshore feeder on 

 migration. See under ' Birds with Long, Curved Bills.' 



HAAVKS, FALCONS, HARRIERS, BUZZARD, OWLS.— 

 Many of these are 'brown birds with spotted breasts,' usually 

 liaving heavy, dark streaks on the whitish under parts ; but they 

 are for the most p.art much larger birds, ranging from 1 to 2 

 feet in length, whilst those of the foregoing section measure from 

 5| to 11 inches. Further, all birds of prey have stout, hooked 

 bills, and the males in many cases have the upper parts of a deep 

 slaty -blue. They are described severally under ' Hawks AND 

 Hawk-like Birds,' ' Eagles and Eagle-like Birds,' and ' Owls 

 AND Owl-like Birds.' 



