PICINjE. YUNX. 223 



rounded, of ten broad, rounded feathers, of ordinary struc- 

 ture. 



This genus is connected with the Picinae by the form of 

 the bill, and the extensile tongue, which, however, is not 

 barbed. 



145. YUNX TORQUILLA. WRYNECK. 



Plumage of the upper parts brownish-grey, spotted, undu- 

 lated, and dotted with blackish-brown ; a longitudinal band of 

 dark brown on the hind neck ; the fore neck and sides grey- 

 ish-yellow, with transverse narrow bars of brownish-black. 



Male, 7, 11, 3 T W ? , A/ & iV 



The Wryneck, which is one of the most beautiful of our 

 native birds, arrives from the middle to the end of April, ge- 

 nerally preceding the Cuckoo, and disperses over the country, 

 extending northward as far as the middle division of Scotland. 

 It feeds on insects, larvae, and ants, which it seizes by means 

 of its tongue, in the manner of the Woodpeckers. It is re- 

 markable for a habit of twisting its neck, with a slow undula- 

 tory motion, turning its head back and closing its eyes, whence 

 its common name. The nest is merely the rounded bottom 

 of a cavity or hole in a tree, which the bird adapts to its pur- 

 pose by means of its bill. The eggs, seven or eight, are pure 

 white, ten-twelfths long, seven-twelfths in breadth. 



Emmet-hunter. Long-tongue. Cuckoo's maid or mate. 

 Snake-bird. Turkey Bird. Barley Bird. 



Yunx Torquilla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 172. Yunx Torquilla, 

 Temm. Man. d'Ornith. i. 403. Yunx Torquilla, Wryneck, 

 MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 100. 



The beautiful, very extensive, and generally distributed 

 family of Pigeons, appears to form an order of itself, sepa- 

 rated by well defined limits. Some have considered it as 

 belonging to the Rasores or Gallinaceous Birds, others as 

 belonging to the Insessores or Perchers. In my opinion it 

 belongs to neither. 



