.YUCCA Z;EO LITE. 



830 



whence the names of the little ermine moths, Ana- 

 campsis, Argyromiges, &c. 



YUCCA (Linnaeus). A conspicuous genus of 

 herbaceous and half- shrubby ornamental plants, 

 chiefly natives of America. The flowers are hex- 

 androus, and the genus belongs to Tulipacece. The 

 most tender sorts are kept in the greenhouse or con- 

 servatory, and the hardy species do well in the open 

 air. They are all magnificent flowering plants, and 

 increased by suckers. 



YUNX Wryneck. A genus of zygodactylic, or 

 climbing birds, belonging to that portion of the order 

 which run upon the bark of trees, and perch length- 

 wise upon the branches, and not to those which 

 climb by grasping the twigs, as is done by the par- 

 rots and the allied tribes. In Cuvier's arrangement 

 they are placed between the woodpeckers and the 

 cuckoos, but they have most resemblance to the 

 former. The term " wryneck" is given not because 

 the necks of these birds are " a-wry " more than those 

 of any other birds, but because they have a wonder- 

 ful power of twisting the neck with great facility, 

 and in all directions. It can not only be bent in any 

 plane, but it has so much twisting motion, that the 

 bird can turn the bill and forehead fairly round in the 

 direction of the back ; and thus, while the axis of the 

 body remains perfectly still, the bird can, in propor- 

 tion to the length of its bill, command more space, 

 and command it with more freedom and celerity, 

 than any known bird. This at once leads us to con- 

 clude that the bird subsists upon very small food. 



The generic characters are : the bill short, straight, 

 in the form of a depressed cone, slender at the tip, 

 rounded on the culmen, and with the cutting-edges 

 entire ; the nostrils pierced in the grooves at the 

 sides of the ridge of the culmen, naked of plumage, 

 and in part covered by membrane ; the tongue ex- 

 tensile, as in the woodpeckers, and with a horny or 

 hard cartilaginous point, but without any barbs ; the 

 two front toes united at their bases, the two hind 

 ones entirely free ; the wings of mean length, the 

 second quill the largest. There is only one charac- 

 teristic species, which was known to the Greeks, who 

 called it Yunx, and the Romans called it Torquilla. 



COMMON WRYNECK (Yunx torquilla). This bird 

 appears in the south of England as a summer visitant, 

 and frequents the warm and dry soils the very 

 opposite ones from the woodpeckers. Its chief food 

 is ants and other little insects, which it collects with 

 wonderful rapidity from the bark of trees, and also 

 from the ground. Sunny days are those upon which 

 it is especially active. It is about the size of a lark, 

 and nearly of the same colours, only they are much 

 richer in the tints and more beautifully mottled. 

 The ground colour of the upper part is yellowish 

 brown, variegated with spots of darker brown, and 

 arrow-head lines of black ; and there is a very distinct 

 mesial line of black along the back, and especially on 

 the neck ; the under parts are greyish-white, with 

 arrow-head spots of black, forming bars ; the quills are 

 brown, with black margins ; the tail-feathers mottled 

 brown, also margined with black ; the tail-feathers 

 are long, but they have not the stiffness of those of 

 the woodpeckers. The bird does not require this, 

 either in the preparation of its nest or in the finding 

 of its food. It prefers a hole of a tree for its nest ; 

 and if it does not find one quite suitable for its pur- 

 pose, it can make improvement, but it never actually 

 digs a hole. Neither does it dig into the wood for 



any part of its subsistence, though it picks it fast 

 enough from the bark. In the spring these birds are 

 partially social ; and the bird-catchers to the south 

 of London decoy them into their snares by imitating 

 their call-note, which has some resemblance to the 

 cry of a small hawk, only it is more subdued and 

 feeble. The eggs are as many as nine or ten, and 

 they are hatched on the wood-dust in the hollow 

 tree, without any materials placed as a formal nest. 

 When the wryneck meets with a plentiful supply of 

 ants, and keeps picking them up right and left, the 

 flexures of the mesial line change so rapidly, that it 

 appears to glide onward like a snake. 



Cuvier makes the genus Picumurus a section of 

 this one. See PICUMNUS. 



ZABRUS (Clairville). A genus of coleopterous 

 insects, belonging to the family Carabidce and sub- 

 family Harpalides, having the body very thick and 

 robust ; the external maxillary palpi filiform, the 

 last joint being shorter than the preceding, the man- 

 dibles shorter than the head, &c. These are insects 

 of moderate size, and generally black colours, which 

 are often found in the neighbourhood of corn-fields, 

 to which, as we learn from a memoir by Germar, the 

 Zabri are often very injurious, by feeding upon the 

 young plants in company with one of the Melo- 

 lonthidcB. Mr. Stephens considered, however, that it 

 was for the purpose of feeding upon the larvae of the 

 latter that the insects were found in company toge- 

 ther ; but Mr. Rudd has clearly proved the contrary 

 in a memoir published in a recent number of the 

 Entomological Magazine. The type of the genus is 

 the Carabus gibbus of Fabricius. 



ZAMIA (Linnaeus'). A very remarkable genus 

 of rigid herbaceous plants, natives of South Africa 

 and the West Indies. The flowers are dioecious, 

 and belong to the natural order Cycadece. This genus 

 has somewhat the habit and character of palms, hav- 

 ing short thick stems, crowned with a tuft of harsh 

 much-divided fronds, from among which the flores- 

 cence is produced. The Z. Caffra is the bread-tree 

 of the Hottentots, its pith being extracted and manu- 

 factured into a kind of flour. 



ZEA (Linnaeus). An important genus in those 

 countries suited to its growth. It is an annual be- 

 longing to Graminece, and is the famous maize or 

 Indian corn so much extolled by the late Mr. Cobbett, 

 as suitable for English cultivation. It has been fairly 

 tried in this country, and in many instances with con- 

 siderable success ; but comparing the expense of 

 cultivation, and the risk of the crop being injured by 

 frost, and as food for either man or cattle, it is not to 

 be compared with common wheat for bread, or com- 

 mon beans for feeding cattle ; it may be superior for 

 feeding poultry, perhaps, but poultry can scarcely be 

 called a necessary of life to British society. 



ZEOLITE, or MESOTYPE as it is sometimes called, 

 is a mineral, of which there are several varieties ; the 

 acicular zeolite is of a grey or reddish-white colour. 

 It occurs in massive, and in distinct concretions, which 

 are both massive and granular. Its two ordinary 

 forms are exhibited in the next page. 



There is a very curious peculiarity in this mineral, 

 which it shares with some others, but which pheno- 

 menon it is singularly well fitted to exhibit. If the 

 zeolite be heated it shows very distinct electrical 

 symptoms, and retains this property for some time after 

 it has cooled ; thus one extremity of the crystal 



