222 ZYGODACTYLES. 



wryneck ever has recourse to vegetable food, or indeed to any 

 sort of insects save ants ; and when the variable nature of 

 our climate is considered, we can easily see that the fate of a 

 bird which is, in a great measure, if not entirely, dependent 

 on our summer production, and that production very much 

 under the influence of the weather, must be often reduced to 

 extremities. 



Wrynecks are very abundant in many parts of Surrey. 

 They are sociable in the early part of the season, and 

 assemble at the call note, " peup-peup," by imitating which, 

 with a sort of mouth whistle, the London bird-catchers 

 obtain numbers of them; they climb in the same style as 

 wood-peckers, but not so often, though they often leap spor- 

 tively after each other up the boles of the trees. When a 

 wounded one is taken in the hand, it raises the feathers 

 of the crown, flattens those of the neck, writhes that 

 part slowly like a snake, and occasionally hisses. These 

 birds, if captured, show signs of pugnacity, or perhaps of 

 fear ; but their motions are slow and twining. They can be 

 partially tamed, but do not live long in confinement. They 

 usually appear in the southern counties in the first week of 

 April, and retire in October. They are very noisy in the 

 early part of the season, but become silent toward the 

 latter. 



THE CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus). 



Why the people of Scotland should have chosen their 

 name for the cuckoo \gowJc) as a synonyme for a fool, it is not 

 easy to say, for there is more cunning about the cuckoo than 

 about most birds ; though its history, notwithstanding all 

 that has been seen and imagined, and printed and spoken, 

 about it, is still as obscure as it is singular. 



Everybody has heard the note of the cuckoo, or the imita- 

 tion of it by a Dutch clock, though domesticated in the 

 most birdless part of the city ; and in the summer, it is 



