346 THE WRYNECK 



the trunks of trees, and these and other insects affecting a similar 

 habitat form a large proportion of this bird's food. In autumn, how- 

 ever, the insect diet is said to be supplemented by elder and other 

 small berries. 



On the ground its gait and appearance are peculiar, for it ad- 

 vances with short jumps, and keeps its tail elevated. While feeding 

 the body is motionless, and if disturbed it rises somewhat confusedly, 

 with an undulating flight, making for the nearest shelter, which it 

 has seldom far to seek. 



Like the typical woodpeckers, the wryneck breeds in hollow trees, 

 but these cavities are always adopted ready-made, the beak being of 

 too feeble a character to be used, pick-fashion, like that of the wood- 

 peckers. Hence it is that the eggs are sometimes found on a bed 

 of moss, wool, hair, or feathers, material brought in by starlings or 

 titmice, as the case may be. As a rule, however, the deserted hole 

 of a woodpecker seems to be preferred. Old posts are sometimes 

 selected, and hence it is not surprising to find that the wryneck takes 

 kindly to nest-boxes hung up for their benefit in gardens. 



The wryneck seems to possess a most tenacious affection for its 

 chosen nesting-place : as much at any rate seems to be established by 

 the fact that a Mr. Norgate, so long ago as 1872 happily perpetrated 

 the particularly senseless and brutal experiment of repeatedly taking 

 the eggs of a bird which he had discovered breeding within his reach. 

 Between May 29 and July 13 he took no less than forty-two eggs, and 

 the following year as many more. In 1874 the bird again took 

 possession of this hole, but her reproductive powers seem to have 

 been exhausted, for she laid but one egg, and the following year 

 the place was deserted. 



As in the case of the woodpecker and other birds which breed in 

 holes, the eggs are white. Both parents take part in incubation, and 

 both share in the work of rearing the young brood. Ants and their 

 pupae, woodlice, small spiders, and small insects of all sorts, are ad- 

 ministered in the form of a glutinous bolus. The callow wryneck, like 



