T H E W R Y-N E C K. 49 



leaft as populous as our own ant-hills j nor are thefc hills rare, but ex- 

 ceed ours in number, as in bulk, perhaps an hundred to one. 



To prevent the total devaftation which thefe animals might create, na- 

 ture has appointed not only quadrupeds, but birds, to leflfen their num- 

 bers. Thefe birds are not totally unlike our black-birds in figure, but 

 have fhort tails and wings; they perch but little, but run on the 

 ground like partridges ; go in troops ; are generally found on ant-hills 

 twenty feet high ; are of a larger and fmaller fpecies, but greatly alike ; 

 keep in woods. The largeft of the kind has been named King of the 

 Ant-eaters, becaufe there is feldom more than one of this kind among 

 a troop of others, which he feems to avoid from dignity ; is lefs lively than 

 the others ; the female (as throughout the fpecies) larger than the male. 



That called the Bcfroi, though in fize but fix inches, has a voice 

 (which he exerts morning and evening) as ftrong as a bell founding 

 the alarm, and maybe heard at above a mile diftance. The Jlrokes (oUqy/ 

 rapidly, for an hour together, in all fcafons. 



That called the Chimer {carrilloneiir) generally goes in companies 

 of four or fix : their clamour has exaclly the effeft of a fet of three 

 bells chiming alternately ; their voice is loud, but not equal to the 

 foregoing : whether each has three tones, or there arc difi^erent tones of 

 voice among them, is uncertain. 



THE WRY-NECK 



IS a bird, whofe fingular manners merit attention, and are juftly ex-- 

 preffed by his name : he is diftinguilhed by a habit of turning and 

 twilling his neck, bringing his head over his back, and half (hutting his 

 eyes ; this nnovement is not rapid, but flow and gradual ; it feems to be 

 the effect of affright and aflonifhment at the fight of an objeft whofc 

 novelty furprifes him, or to be an attempt at felf-defcnce when he is 

 feized j yet, as the young in the neft have the fame habit, it may rather 

 be thought a confequence of fome natural conformation. One of thefe 

 birds taken and caged, when vifited, looks fteadily at the fpeftator, 

 then raifing himfelf on his feet, pokes himfelf flowly forward,, elevating 

 the feathers on the crown of his head, fpreading his tail ; then fuddenly 

 withdrawing himfelf, ftrikcs with his bill the bottom of his cage, and 

 dcpreffes his tuftj this he repeats an hundred times running. Upon 



I 2 thefc 



