36 



KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



the fact 

 presents no 

 difficulties 

 of a moral 

 or physical 

 character 

 to the ag- 

 gressive 

 Wryneck, 

 for she sim- 

 ply ejects 

 the right- 

 ful owner 

 and her 

 eggs and 

 takes pos- 

 session. Al- 

 though this species does not make any 

 kind of nest of its own as a rule, it 

 docs not appear to object to the com- 

 fortable down-lined home of the bird 

 it has evicted. 



Seven or eight pure white unspotted 

 eggs, easily mistaken for those of the 

 lesser spotted woodpecker, are laid, and 

 if any prying intruder should come along 

 whilst the Wryneck is sitting, she resorts 

 to the most astonishing forms of decep- 

 tion. First of all she tries to terrify, 



A YOUNG WKYNKCK. 



by hissing like an angry snake, and if 

 this does not succeed in frightening 

 away the molester of her peace, and she 

 is captured, she will feign serious illness 

 until an opportune moment for escape 

 presents itself, when she suddenly darts 

 away from her captor. 



A large proportion of the food of the 

 Wryneck consists of ants arid their eggs, 

 for the capture of which the bird has 

 been bountifully provided by Nature. 

 Its tongue, which is long and worm-like, 

 is supplied with a sticky secretion to 

 which the insects adhere until they 

 have been withdrawn between the man- 

 dibles of their captor. The individual 

 figured in the accompanying plate will 

 be seen to have a large number of ants 

 in its bill, if the illustration be examined 

 with a magnifier. 



Having two toes in front, and two 

 behind, the Wryneck can run up or 

 down the trunk of a tree with equal ease 

 and expedition. On the ground it pro- 

 gresses by means of short, quick hops. 



This bird is commonest in the 

 south and south-east of England. It 

 is a migrant arriving in April and 

 leaving again during September. 



