THE WRYNECK 
IYNX TORQUILLA 
Locat names in surrounding counties: ‘“‘ Snake-Bird,”’ 
‘“Cuckoo's’ Mate (Essex); “* Bay-Paye2 qourtey). 
Status IN British AviraunA: A_ local summer 
visitor, commonest in the southern and eastern counties 
of England, rarer in the northern and western ones 
and in Wales and Scotland. It has been obtained 
once in Ireland, straying there on passage occasion- 
ally. 
Raprat DisTrRiBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s: The Wryneck visits much more central districts 
than the Woodpeckers, and has been recorded from areas 
no more remote than Highgate, Hampstead, Kensington 
Gardens, Barnes, and Battersea Park. Its regular breed- 
ing haunts may be said to commence between the six- and 
seven-mile radius, which includes Sydenham, Tooting, 
Dulwich, Wimbledon, Dollis Hill, Hornsey, Plaistow, and 
Lewisham. Beyond this limit, in the more rural suburbs, 
the following localities (as well as various intervening ones) 
may be mentioned as haunts of the Wryneck : Richmond, 
Bushey, Kew Gardens, Chiswick, Brentford, Osterley, 
Hanwell, Ealing, ‘Twyford, Sudbury, Wembley, Harrow, 
Kingsbury, Pinner, Ruislip, Mill Hill, Barnet, Enfield, 
Waltham, Epping, Wanstead, Romford, Dagenham, Rain- 
ham, Dartford, the Crays, Bromley, Croydon, Merton, 
Banstead, Epsom, Esher, and Kingston. ‘The Wryneck, 
from the evidence available, appears to be rarer and more 
local in Essex than elsewhere. 
This beautiful little bird reaches its London haunts 
towards the end of March. I have seen it in Richmond 
Park as early as the 23rd of that month. Although closely 
allied to the Woodpeckers, the Wryneck does not possess 
rigid tail-feathers ; neither does it climb trees in the same 
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