The Wryneck. 19 



in an old stump; it bcin^- kinnvn tli:it if the eggs arc removed tlie Wryneck 

 continues to lay. In 1873 he repeated tlie action, but in 1874 the poor thing 

 appears to have been so weakened by tlie strain mi lier reproductive powers that 

 only one egg was deposited, and after tliat year she was seen no more. To 

 my mind for a man persistently to rob a bird of every egg througli two 

 successive seasons seems bad enough, even if his object was to prove the 

 productiveness of the species, but I cannot understand how lie could have tlie 

 hardihood to make his action public* 



The Wryneck is a very close sitter when once its clutch is complete, and 

 whilst the young are only partly feathered the female only goes off the nest 

 when the male bird relieves her ; thus it is no uncommon thing for one or 

 other of the old birds to be caught upon the nest by the egg-collector, when it 

 hisses like a snake, pecks at his fingers and finally feigns death. After leaving 

 the nest the young accompany their parents and are fed by them for a time. 

 Nidification takes place from the middle of May to the middle of June ; or, if 

 the bird has been disturbed, sometimes a little later. The egg figured is from 

 uty collection. 



Towards the end of June, 1880, I noticed a Wrj-neck examining a deca5'ed 

 apple-tree in an orchard at Bobbing in Kent. One of the holes in this tree had 

 been occupied the previous year by a Robin, the remains of whose nest still laj' 

 at the bottom of the cavity. Previousl}^ I had not taken the eggs of the 

 Wryneck and therefore I was intei'ested in more senses than one. Watching 

 the bird through my glasses I was convinced that it had decided to take possession 

 of the Robin's old nest ; but, as I was returning to town in a day or two, I 

 knew I could -not myself take the eggs, so I called the son of the man who 

 rented the orchard, and promised him a shilling to send me the complete clutch. 

 A little more than a week later I received five eggs which were all that were 

 deposited. 



After this I did not again meet with the Wr\-neck until 18S7, when on 

 July 9th I was examining the mole-burrows, Sand-Martin's holes, &c., in a large 

 brick-earth cutting on Mr. Drake's property at Kemsley, in Kent, on the chance 

 of finding a late nest, when as I passed a small hole I heard a sound not unlike 

 that produced by shaking a number of small silver coins between the palms of 

 one's hands. Taking out a large knife I set to work to enlarge the hole, and 

 after half-an-hour's hard work was able to insert my hand, when I felt the soft 



* \\'heii oue considers that the Wrvneck is siugle-brooded, and that seven to eight eggs represent a fair 

 average clutch, some idea of the strain put upon the bird hy compelling it to lay at least five times that number 

 of e<?gs may be obtained: on no grounds can such a proceeding be justified. 



