64 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AKD NESTS. 



before they are blown, which arises from the transparency of the 

 shell. They are about J-inch long by rather more than J-inch 

 broad. 



129. WRYNECK (Yunx torqmlla). 



Cuckoo's-mate, Emmet-hunter, Snake-bird, Long-tongue. A 

 dear little bird is the Wryneck, with his cheery spring-announcing 

 cry. We willingly pardon its want of melody for its associations. 

 The marvellous rapidity with which its tongue is darted out and 

 retracted, enabling it by the aid of the glutinous secretion with 

 which its end is furnished to secure an Ant at every action, is 

 highly interesting as illustrating another of the wonderful and 

 beautiful adaptations provided by the Divine Artificer of all. 

 The Wryneck makes scarcely any nest (if any), but lays its eggs 

 on the fragments of decayed wood which line a hole in a tree. 

 They are from six to ten in number, and white and glossy, and 

 about the same size as those of the Barred Wood-pecker. The 

 old bird is singularly unwilling to leave her eggs under any 

 intrusion, and tries by such means as hissing sharply, elevating 

 her crest and contorting her neck to intimidate or deter the 

 intruder. 



II. CEETHIAD^E. 

 130. CHEEPER (Certhia familiaris). 



Tree-creeper, Tree-climber. A shy, gentle-seeming little bird, 

 shunning observation, and, with the rest of its neighbours in our 

 catalogue, possessing a singular facility of quietly and rapidly 

 shifting its place on the trunk or limb of a tree, so as always to 

 interpose an efficient screen between its own minute body and 

 the eye of any passer-by. Its claws, sharp and long and curved, 

 aided by its long and pointed tail- feathers, are its chief machinery 

 in these facile motions. It builds its nest, generally speaking, in 

 a hole in a tree, with only a very minute aperture. Sometimes, 

 though I think rarely, the nest is outside the tree, but screened 

 from observation by some casual dislodgement of the bark, or in 

 some similar way. It is made of dry grass, small twigs, shreds 

 of moss, with a lining of feathers, ft is very hard to distinguish 

 between the eggs of the Creeper, which number from six to nine, 

 and those of the Blue Tit-mouse and the Willow-wren, not to 

 mention one or two other small birds. The illustration will give 

 a better idea of the egg than many lines of description. Fig. 16, 

 plate IV. 



131. WREN. troglodytes vulgans}. 



Jenny Wren, Kitty Wren, Titty Wren, Cutty Wren. A kind 

 of natural pet with every one. I scarcely ever remember to 

 have spoken of the Wren, or heard others speak of it, without some 

 gentle, loving epithet applied to its name. The provincial ruunes 



