PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



on the head are larger, the crown ia further heavily barred with dark grey. The 

 interecapular area is uniformly dark chestnut, and the innermost secondaries 

 have terminal paired spots of white. The throat lacks the rich buff of the adult, 

 though it may be tinged with pale buff. [w. p. P.] 



a. Distribution. A widely distributed species, which is found on the 

 Continent up to about lat. 64 N. in Norway and Finland, but in the Mediter- 

 ranean countries is chiefly known as a passing migrant. Its range extends across 

 temperate Asia to Kamtschatka and Japan, where it is represented by a paler 

 race ; and darker forms are resident in Sardinia and Algeria. In the British Isles 

 it is a summer visitor to England and Wales, and is chiefly met with in the midland 

 and southern counties of England, but does not breed in Cornwall, is scarce in 

 Wales, and very local and rare in all the northern counties, although it breeds in 

 small numbers in Yorkshire, and occasionally in Durham. It has not been proved 

 to nest in Scotland or Ireland. During the winter months it migrates southward 

 to Central Africa across the Sahara, and in Asia to India, but probably the Sardinian 

 and Algerian birds are more or less sedentary, [r. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor to those parts of England and Wales 

 mentioned above as comprising the species' British breeding-area. On the eastern 

 seaboard of Great Britain, from the Shetland and Orkney Isles southwards, the 

 wryneck occurs regularly in small numbers on both migrations, the individuals 

 participating in these movements doubtless being birds of passage to our area as a 

 whole and breeding in Northern Europe. To the remainder of Great Britain the 

 species is an occasional wanderer from some source or another (cf. Saunders, III. 

 Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 271 ; Witherby and Ticehurst, British Birds, i. 280 ; 

 Nelson, B. of Yorlu., 1907, p. 271). In Ireland the wryneck " has been obtained in 

 six cases on islands or near the coast ; once in May, and five times in autumn " : 

 theiP occurrences are well distributed round Ireland, including cases from islands 

 on the extreme east, south, west, and north-west (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of 

 Ireland, 1900, p. 107). There is also a single record for the Isle of Man (cf. Ralfe, 

 /)'. "/ //c />/ "/ M<i /i. p. 214). The spring immigration into the British Isles takes 

 place almost exclusively on the south-eastern coasts of England, from Essex to 

 Hampshire. A few examples usually appear late in March, but the first large 

 influx occurs about the second week of April as a rule : by mid-May all movement 

 is apparently at an end. The emigratory movement becomes noticeable before 

 the end of August, and has practically ceased soon after the middle of September. 

 Migration is undertaken singly or in very small parties (Cf. B. O. C. Migration 



