WRYNECKS. 567 



has seen as many young ones constituting a family and flying about with their 

 parents. Mr. Gammie has found the species nesting in Sikhim, in decaying stumps 

 of small trees, about three feet from the ground, in holes bored by the birds them- 

 selves, the entrance being only about an inch in diameter. The hole was three 

 and a half inches deep, and little more than an inch wide all the way ; and as with 

 other woodpeckers there were no nesting materials. 



The rufous piculets (Sasia) differ from the preceding genus in 

 having the sides of the face around the eye bare. They have only 

 three toes, the first being absent. In the Himalayan species (8. ochracea) the 

 general colour is rufous-olive above, rufous below ; the forehead is golden-yellow 

 in the male, rufous in the female, with a white stripe above the eye. In Tenasserim 

 Mr. Davison found it frequenting moderately open country, especially where 

 bamboos flourished. "It keeps to the undergrowth and secondary scrub and 

 bamboo-jungle, working about the fallen logs. It is wonderful what a loud sound 

 one of these little fellows can produce when tapping a bamboo. I have more than 

 once thought that it must have been some large woodpecker, and was astonished 

 when I could not see it, and when at last I did discover the tiny object I felt quite 

 as much surprised at the sound it was able to produce as it was by my sudden 

 advent. It is very fond of knocking about in low brushwood. I do not know its 

 call, nor do I think that I ever heard one. It is usually alone, but sometimes pairs 

 are met with." Mr. Hume has received a piece of bamboo, selected by the bird for 

 its nesting-place, which was only two and a half inches in diameter. It was a dry 

 bamboo, and into this, at a height of about three feet from the ground and six inches 

 above the joint, the bird had drilled a small circular hole. Interiorly it had 

 grooved with its little bill the w T hole inner aspect of the lower surface of the 

 compartment, and the little, long fibrous strips thus obtained were collected at the 

 bottom to form a bed for the eggs. 



THE WRYNECKS. 

 Family lYNGID^. 



Of this family only four species are known, one enjoying a wide range in 

 Europe and Asia, while the other three are confined to Africa south of the Sahara : 

 these being lynx pectoralis, inhabiting the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, 

 Natal, and the Eastern Transvaal, and extending to the Lower Congo district in 

 West Africa ; /. pulchricollis is known from Eastern Equatorial Africa, where it 

 was discovered by Emin Pasha; and /. cequatorialis, inhabiting the southern 

 provinces of Abyssinia and Shoa. The wrynecks may be termed soft-tailed wood- 

 peckers ; and have the tail rather long, and not spiny ; while the nostrils are not 

 concealed by bristles, but partially hidden by a membrane. Their plumage is very 

 remarkable, the whole of the upper- surf ace being mottled or vermiculated, as it 

 is called, with a crowd of little wavy black lines. The English species is also known 

 as the snake-bird, because of the curious way in which it twists and turns its 

 head about, and elongates its neck, hissing all the way most vigorously, and spread- 

 ing out the feathers of its head. It has an extensile tongue, like that of the wood- 



