8o BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



worm-like tongue is conspicuous enough. No 

 doubt the apparent attraction of the Wryneck's 

 food to its bill, and the bird's queer snake-like 

 movements under excitement, were what commended 

 it to ancient sorcery as a love-charm ; it was, as 

 students of the classics know, bound to a wheel, 

 which was spun as a love-charm, the " iynx " being 

 invoked to bring the beloved person to the spinner. 

 The custom, indeed, became proverbial ; " to spin 

 the Wryneck " at any one was the Greek equivalent 

 for our " setting one's cap " at him. 



To turn from Wrynecks and witches to Wood- 

 peckers ; the extensile tongue is brought into 

 play by others than the Sapsucker to procure 

 vegetable juices ; a Woodpecker in Jamaica (Me- 

 lanerfes striolatus) makes itself very objectionable 

 to planters by puncturing the rind of the sugar- 

 cane and sucking out the juice ; and another in 

 Cuba (M. superciliaris) is such a pest by performing 

 a similar feat in the orange-groves that it is, or 

 used to be, the custom to turn the army on to 

 Woodpecker- shooting when there was not a revolu- 

 tion on hand to keep them healthily occupied. 

 One of this species was some time ago in the pos- 

 session of Mr. J. D. Hamlyn, the well-known bird- 

 dealer, and used to amuse itself by using its tongue 

 to grapple the tails of some Budgerigars or Grass- 

 Parrakeets in the compartment immediately above 

 it. 



These sap- and juice-sucking Woodpeckers natur- 

 ally remind one of the true nectar-feeding birds, 



