WRYNECK. 375 



management may be induced to lay an extraordinary number of eggs in a 

 single season. Like the Starling the hen bird will continue to lay after 

 her eggs are removed, and many instances are on record of great number s 

 of eggs having been taken from a single nest. One of the most ex- 

 traordinary cases of this kind was communicated to the ' Zoologist ' 

 (1872, p. 3227, and 1876, p. 5081) by Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jim. In 

 1872 Mr. Frank Norgate took forty-two eggs from one nest of this bird 

 in an old stump. In 1873 the female again laid forty-two eggs ; but in 

 1874 her reproductive powers were apparently exhausted, only one egg was 

 laid; and in 1875 the place was deserted. 



The Wryneck is a very close sitter. Both male and female assist in 

 incubating the eggs, and often remain on them until removed by the hand 

 of the collector. Its common name has been derived from its singular 

 habit of twisting its head from side to side like a snake in its nesting-hole 

 or when wounded. It will also hiss in an alarming manner if surprised 

 on its eggs, and when caught has been known to feign death a habit 

 alluded to by Sir Thomas Browne, in his 'Account of Birds found in 

 Norfolk/ who writes that it was " marvellously subject to the vertigo/' 

 and was " sometimes taken in these fits." 



When the young are hatched they are fed and tended with great care 

 by their anxious parents, and when able to leave the nest are accompanied 

 by them for some little time. The Wryneck only rears one brood in 

 the year; but, as already noticed, if its first clutch of eggs are taken 

 others will be laid, and it is such necessarily late broods that are some- 

 times met with late in the summer. 



The general colour of the upper parts of the Wryneck, including the 

 tail, is greyish white, mottled all over with brownish grey, and obscurely 

 barred and streaked with dark brown; the wings are brown, barred with 

 dull chestnut on the outer webs of the feathers. The underparts are 

 buff, each feather having a narrow dark-brown subterminal bar or spot. 

 Bill, legs, and feet brown ; irides dark brown. There are no variations 

 in the plumage attributable to age, sex, or season worthy of notice. 



