154 PICID.E. 



and its stomach contains a larger portion of grit tlian is 

 usually met with in that of other birds. 



The Wryneck makes little or no nest, but deposits its 

 eggs on the fragments of decayed wood within the hole of a 

 tree. The eggs are from six to nine or ten in number, 

 white, smooth, and shining, nine lines and a half long, by 

 seven lines in breadth. The pair of old birds are believed to 

 frequent the same hollow tree for several years in succession. 

 The note is a sharp souud, repeated several times, and not 

 unlike the whistle of a Kestril. 



Mr. Salmon, when residing in Norfolk, recorded a singular 

 instance of the attachment of this bird to a particular retreat, 

 in the following terms : — " I wished, last spring, to obtain 

 the eggs of the Wryneck to place in my cabinet, and accord- 

 ingly watched very closely a pair that had resorted to a 

 garden in this village for the purpose of incubation ; I soon 

 ascertained that they had selected a hole in an old decayed 

 apple tree for that purpose, the entrance to which was so 

 small as not to admit my hand. The tree being hollow and 

 decayed at the bottom near the ground, I was enabled to 

 reach the nest by putting my arm upwards, and I found, on 

 withdrawing the nest, that the underneath part of it was 

 composed of moss, hair, &c. having every appearance of an 

 old nest of the Redstart"'s of the preceding summer; which, I 

 suspect, was the case : the upper part was made of dried 

 roots. The nest did not contain any eggs, and I returned it 

 by thrusting it up in the inside of the tree. On passing by 

 the same tree about a week afterwards, my attention was 

 arrested by observing one of the birds leaving the hole, upon 

 which I gently withdrew the nest, and was much gratified at 

 finding it contained five most beautiful glossy eggs, the shells 

 of which were perfectly white, and so transparent that the 

 yelks shone through, giving them a delicate pink colour, but 



* Mayiizine ot Natural llistoiy, vol. vii. p. 465. 



