ai8 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



hoo-hoo-hoo," without which April sunshine, how- 

 ever mellow, would seem to lack something. He 

 goes and visits the ant-hills of last year, and finds 

 with delight that they are as well stocked as ever. 

 The same soft-wooded willow holds grubs for his 

 easy capture. We hope that he notes with approval 

 that the same humans inhabit the house among the 

 flowers. 



A few days later both the wrynecks are in the 

 orchard. We like this courtesy among the birds which 

 usually sends the males ahead of the hens, to see that 

 all is straight, and to prepare a welcome home for their 

 spouses. We can imagine that he takes care to know 

 just where he can get the juiciest morsel for her refresh- 

 ment on arrival. When they revisit the old nesting- 

 site, they not infrequently find that a great or a blue 

 tit, winter-abiding birds whose nesting? begins earlier, 

 has begun to build there. It is a trifle that does not 

 worry the wrynecks, for they proceed to haul out the 

 labour of the tits, and reduce the floor of the hole to 

 the bare requirements of the woodpeckers they are. 

 The wryneck's laugh proclaims him kindred with the 

 great green woodpecker, one of the noisiest members 

 of the tribe. It is with a woodpecker tongue that he 

 picks up ants from the ant-hill. His feet, with two 

 claws, instead of one, turned backward, not only put 

 him among the woodpeckers, but suggest a horrid 

 possibility. Has not the cuckoo such feet as this, and 

 may it not be that the nest-usurping habit of the wry- 

 neck may lead to a more definite parasitism? Possibly 

 the first cuckoo merely stole the nest of some other 

 bird in which to bring up her own young in a proper 

 maternal way. Then, perhaps, she relinquished the 



