Queries atid Answers. ^IS 



The wryneck is the only species of the genus that visits this country, and 

 forms an interesting link between the cuckoo and the woodpeckers, having 

 the long flexible tail of the former, with the extensile tongue of the latter. 

 They have two toes only projecting forwards, and two turned backwards, a 

 construction of the feet which enables them to climb trees with facility, and 

 sustain themselves in various positions on the surface of the bark while 

 searching for insects. They are often seen on the ground near ant-hills, 

 consuming, as food, large quantities of the ants and their larvae. 



Wrynecks are, with us, summer visitors only, preceding the cuckoo in the 

 spring, and as their line of flight on departing in autumn is in a south- 

 eastern direction, they probably, with many others of our summer visitors, 

 pass the winter in Asia or Africa. The swill, the swallow, and one of our 

 martens, have been seen at Sierra Leone, and the Island of St. Thomas, in 

 the months of January and February. 



The anatomical construction of the tongue and its appendages in the wry- 

 neck, and the consequent mode of taking its food, are beautiful adaptations 

 of means to an end, and will amply repay the closest examination. By a 

 peculiar elongation of the two lateral portions of the bones of the tongue, 

 and the muscles attached to them, this bird is able to extend the tongue a 

 very considerable distance beyond the point of his beak : the end of the 

 tongue itself is horny, and consequently hard, but by no means pointed. 

 A very large and long gland is situated at the under edge of the lower jaw 

 on each side, which secretes a glutinous mucus, and transfers it to the 

 inside of the mouth by a slender duct. With this glutinous mucus the 

 end of the tongue is always covered, for the especial purpose of conveying 

 food into the mouth by contact alone. I have frequently examined the 

 contents of the stomach in the wryneck, but without finding any fracture 

 or mutilation of the food from the action of the beak, unless the substance 

 proved too large and heavy to be lifted by adhesion. So unerring is the 

 aim with which the tongue is darted out, and so certain the effect of the 

 adhesive moisture, that the bird never fails in obtaining its object at every 

 attempt. So rapid, also, is the action of the tongue in thus conveying food 

 into the mouth, that the eye is unable distinctly to follow it j and Montagu, 

 who had an opportunity of observing this bird feed while confined in a 

 cage, says, an ant's egg, which is of a light colour, and more conspicuous 

 than the tongue, had somewhat the appearance of moving towards the 

 mouth by attraction, as a needle flies to a magnet. 



The woodpeckers take their food in the same manner, but with some 

 specific modification in the structure of their tongues, — S. T. P. 



Whether, by destroying ike Buds of Fruit Trees, Birds were, or were not, 

 conferring an obligation, has long, I believe, been a disputed point amongst 

 naturalists ; whether those devoured by them were in a diseased state, 

 and containing the larvae of insects, or whether they were healthful, and 

 likely to arrive in due season at maturity. Witnessing, a few springs since, 

 the havoc made by a number of bullfinches, on two thriving young codlin 

 trees, that for several years had blossomed and borne profusely, and had, 

 at that time, every appearance of health, my curiosity was excited on this 

 subject, and I then saw opened the crops of two of these depredators. 

 They were wholly filled with the vegetable matter on which the birds had 

 been feeding, and which did not appear to contain insects of any kind. 

 Since that time the codlin trees have never grown with so much vigour as 

 they did previously, many branches being so entirely stripped of buds that 

 they never recovered. This spring the trial was repeated, and when the 

 trees were in a more advanced state, in fact, just as the leaves were begin- 

 ning to expand, and the blossom buds to make their appearance. A culprit 

 bullfinch was killed in the very act, an unswallowed morsel yet remaining 

 in his bill, to bear witness against him. This was a single flower-bud, with 



I I 2 



