J 56 



PICID.E. 



is also scarce ; it is rare in Yorkshire. Mr. Selby has ascer- 

 tained that a few only appear every year in Northumberland. 

 There are records of this bird having been killed twice in 

 Berwickshire, once in Fifeshire, and in one or two other in- 

 stances in Scotland. Miiller and M. Nilsson include the 

 Wryneck among the birds of Denmark and Sweden, the 

 latter author noticing that it makes its appearance in Sweden 

 at the beginning of May. M. Temminck says it is a rare 

 bird in Holland ; but it is common in Germany, France, 

 Spain, Provence, and Italy, during summer. Mr. Gould 

 has received specimens from the Himalaya mountains, — a 

 locality remarkable for European forms among its animal in- 

 habitants. M. Temminck includes it in his Catalogue of the 

 Birds of Japan; and M. Vieillot says it is found in Kamt- 

 schatka. The Wryneck, when quitting the southern part of 

 the European continent in autumn, goes to north Africa, and 

 the warm parts of western Asia. 



The adult bird has the beak brown ; the irides hazel ; the 

 top of the head greyish brown, barred across with streaks of 

 darker brown and white ; neck, back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts, grey, speckled with brown ; from the occiput down 

 the middle line of the back of the neck, and between the 

 scapulars, a streak of dark brown mixed with black ; the 

 wings brown, speckled with lighter yellow brown, and a few 

 white spots ; the primary quill-feathers barred alternately 

 with pale yellow brown and black ; the tertials on the upper 

 surface marked Avith a descending line of black ; upper surface 

 of the tail-feathers mottled with grey and brown, and marked 

 with four irregularly transverse bars of black ; chin, throat, 

 ear-coverts, and neck in front, pale yellow brown, with narrow 

 transverse black lines ; breast, belly, sides, and under tail- 

 coverts, dull white, tinged with pale yellow brown, and 

 spotted with black ; under surface of tail-feathers pale greyish 

 brown, speckled and barred with black ; legs, toes, and claws, 

 brown. 



