OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 331 



and tameness, pick out the worms, almost close to his spade, 

 as I have frequently seen. Starlings and magpies very 

 often sit on the backs of sheep and deer to pick out their 

 ticks. — Markwick. 



WRYNECK. 



These birds appear on the grass plots and walks ; they 

 walk a little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the 

 turf, in quest, I conclude, of ants, which are their food. 

 While they hold their bills in the grass, they draw out their 

 prey with their tongues, which are so long as to be coiled 

 round their heads. — White. 



GROSBEAK. 



Mr. B. shot a cock grosbeak which he had observed to 

 haunt his garden for more than a fortnight. I began to 

 accuse this bird of making sad havoc among the buds of the 

 cherries, gooseberries, and wall-fruit of all the neighbouring 

 orchards. Upon opening its crop or craw, no buds were to 

 be seen ; but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr 

 B. observed that this bird frequented the spot where plum- 

 trees grow, and that he had seen it with somewhat hard in 

 its mouth, which it broke with difficulty ; these were the 

 stones of damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this bird 

 Coccothraustes — i.e., berry-breaker — because with its large 

 horny beak it cracks and breaks the shells of stone-fruits 

 for the sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are 

 rarely seen in England, and only in winter. — White. 



I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest 

 cold of the hardest winter ; at which season of the year I have 

 had in my possession two or three that were killed in this 

 neighbourhood in different years. — Markwick. 



