WRYNECK. 307 



with brown. The breast and belly are marked with 

 transverse bars of black, and the upper part with the 

 same colour in the shape of arrows ; the wings and 

 tail are also barred with black ; there is a black band 

 down the neck and back, and there is the most ex- 

 quisite fineness in the outline and delicacy in the 

 points of their marks. It is watchful, and as it picks 

 up ants on the ground, or larvse from the rough bark 

 of an old tree, it is constantly jerking its head, first 

 over the one shoulder and then over the other, by 

 which means it is never even a moment without a 

 flexure of the black band. 



When it first arrives, it has a sort of note or voice 

 not unlike that of the smaller hawks, and two are never 

 seen together till they have begun the labour of nesting. 

 The nest is indeed very simple, being nothing more 

 than a little hollow scraped in the accidental dust 

 formed in a hole of an old tree, and in that from eight 

 to ten beautifully white eggs are deposited. When the 

 female is surprised there, she crests her feathers, and 

 looks very formidable ; and the fledglings hiss like 

 young serpents. The nests are often in hedge hollows, 

 and the chief food of both the old and the young is 

 ants, which they both pick up in their journies, and 

 attack in their hills. As soon as the brood have left 

 the nest, they all separate, and betake themselves to the 

 fields, where they may be found usually till the mid- 

 dle or end of August. They then migrate, but their 

 migration is not much noticed, as they neither flock 

 before it nor take their departure together. 



The day birds, in the summer forest, would, how- 

 ever, demand a long time before half their habits were 



