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insects, small seeds, and soft fruits. Its song, 

 which is full, rich, and mellow, is surprisingly loud. 

 Its flight is rapid, even, and short. Although not 

 essentially a climber, it clings to perpendicular 

 surfaces sideways, and is often seen on trees. It 

 builds its nest, which is very large, and lined in 

 the interior with feathers, under the thatch or other 

 covering of outhouses, against the stem of an ivy- clad 

 tree, or in some cavity under an impending branch 

 or prominent piece of rock. The materials of 

 which the nest is constructed externally are always 

 adapted in colour to the situation it is to occupy. 

 Thus, on trees overrun with ivy, the outer coat is 

 entirely composed of the fresh and greener mosses, 

 but on a stump or rock, grey with lichens and 

 without grass, it will be found to be built either 

 of those substances, or of others coinciding in 

 general effect. The eggs, from six to eight in 

 number, are of a yellowish white, speckled, princi- 

 pally at the larger end, with reddish brown. 



WRYNECK. 



TUNX TOEQUILLA, Lin. 



The Wryneck, which is one of the most beautiful 

 of our native birds, arrives from the middle to the 

 end of April, generally preceding the Cuckoo, and 

 disperses over the country in search of insects, 



