168 PICIDJE. 



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

 ascertained that a few only appear every year in Northum- 

 berland. There are records of this bird having been killed 

 twice in Berwickshire, once in Fifeshire, lately near Glas- 

 gow, and in one or two other instances 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, Italy, Corfu, 

 and Sicily, during summer. Mr. Gould has received spe- 

 cimens from the Himalaya Mountains, a locality remark- 

 able for European forms among its animal inhabitants. 

 Mr. Blyth has obtained it in the vicinity of Calcutta, and 

 it is found in China. M. Temminck includes it in his 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Japan ; and M. Vieillot says it 

 is found in Kamtschatka. 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 with 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 



