192 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



THE WEYNECK. 



YUNX TORQUILLA. 



WITH the exception of a single specimen shot near Hamilton, in 

 1835, and a notice of one near Glasgow in Yarrell's British 

 Birds, I have not been able, until recently, to trace the occurrence 

 of the Wryneck in any of the western counties. Having read 

 some very pleasant articles on rural objects, written for the 

 Inverness Courier by the Rev. Alexander Stewart, Ballachulish 

 Manse, Fort- William, I was interested to find a notice of the 

 Wryneck having bred in the district of Nether Lochaber, Inver- 

 ness-shire; and having since communicated with this gentleman, 

 I am enabled here to record the substance of his observations, 

 which prove, in one instance at least, the nesting of the species in 

 Scotland. 



" The other day," writes Mr Stewart, " I was so lucky as to 

 stumble on the nest of a bird rarely noticed even as a stray 

 wanderer anywhere north of the Forth, and never before known, 

 so far as I am aware, to breed on the west coast of Scotland. 

 The nest was found in a circular cavity, evidently hollowed out 

 by the bird itself, in the decayed hole of an old rowan tree, and 

 at a height of about seven feet from the ground. The structure 

 consisted mainly of withered grass blades, slightly mixed and 

 interwoven with moss and wool. The eggs were seven in 

 number, and of a shining, marble-like whiteness. I was delighted 

 of course with my discovery, certain that the nest and eggs were 

 those of no ordinary bird of our acquaintance hereabouts ; and 

 being determined to know, a little patience and some cunning 

 tactics, to which the naturalist must have frequent recourse, soon 

 put me in possession of an agreeable solution of the mystery by 

 the appearance of the bird itself a female Wryneck settling on 

 a neighbouring stump and finally entering her nest. By lying 

 concealed for half an hour or so, I had the satisfaction of being 

 rewarded with a sight of the male a fine fellow, in full plumage 

 whose confident hawk-like gi-gli gli-gi, thrice-repeated as he 

 settled with a sudden and peculiar jerk on a branch a few feet 

 above the cavity where his mate and her treasure lay hid, clearly 

 showing that he felt quite at home in Lochaber, and rather liked 

 it than otherwise." 



