94 BIEDS OF GUERNSEY. 



the specimen formerly in the Museum no longer 



exists. 



82. WRYNECK. Yunx torquilla, Linnaeus. French, 

 " Tor col ordinaire." The Wryneck, or, as it is 

 called in Guernsey-French, " Parle" * is generally 

 a numerous summer visitant to the Islands, arriving 

 in considerable numbers, about the same time as the 

 mackerel, wherefore it has also obtained the local 

 name of " Mackerel Bird." It is generally dis- 

 tributed through the Islands, remaining through 

 the summer to breed, and departing again in early 

 autumn, August, or September. Its numbers, how- 

 ever, vary considerably in different years, as in 

 some summers I have seen Wrynecks in almost 

 every garden, hedgerow, or thick bush in the Island ; 

 always when perched, sitting across the branches 

 or twigs, on which they were perched, and never 

 longways or climbing, as would be the case with a 

 Woodpecker or Creeper ; and the noise made by the 

 birds during the breeding-season, was, in some 

 years, incessant ; this was particularly the case in 

 the early part of the summer of 1866, when the 

 birds were very numerous, and the noise made was 

 so great that on one occasion I was told that the 

 Mackerel Birds seriously interrupted a scientific 

 game of Croquet, which was going on at Fort 

 George, by the noise they made ; I can quite believe 

 * Rim. Gu., p. 35. 



