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Subfamily IYNGINjE. 



Genus IYNX. 



Torquilla apud Brisson, Orn. iv. p. 4 (1760). 



Yunx, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 172 (1766). 



lynx, Scopoli ex Linnaeus, Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 45 (1769). 



Picus apud Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 416 (1811). 



The Wrynecks resemble the Woodpeckers in the form of the bill, in having the tongue extensile, 

 and in many points of internal structure, but they differ in lacking the stiff tail, their tail being 

 composed of ten broad rounded feathers of ordinary form. These birds inhabit the Palsearctic, 

 Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions, only one species being found in the Western Palsearctic 

 Region. 



The Wrynecks are less active and lively than the Woodpeckers. They climb about on the 

 trees something after the manner of the Woodpeckers, but do not move perpendicularly up, as 

 they lack the stiff tail with which the Woodpeckers support themselves ; and they perch sitting 

 across a branch like the true perching birds. They have a peculiar habit of elongating and 

 twisting their necks in a most extraordinary manner ; and when disturbed in their nest-hole they 

 utter a loud hissing sound like a snake. They inhabit wooded localities, and feed on insects of 

 various kinds. Their flight is somewhat heavy and laboured ; and their note is loud and Hawk- 

 like ; but, except during the breeding-season, they are somewhat silent birds. They nest in holes 

 in trees, not excavating the hole for themselves, but selecting one which is suitable, and adapting 

 it to their purpose. They deposit several pure white eggs on the chips at the bottom of the 

 nest-hole, not making any real nest. 



lynx torquilla, the type of the genus, has the bill rather short, slender, straight, tapering to 

 a sharp point without notch ; gape-line straight ; nostrils linear, the nasal membrane large, 

 anteriorly bare ; wings moderately long, straight, the first quill very short, the second and third 

 nearly equal and longest ; tail rather long, rounded, composed of ten rather broad rounded 

 feathers; tarsus moderately long, feathered anteriorly a little below the joint, covered with four 

 large and three inferior scutellae, and scutellate also posteriorly; toes, two directed forwards, 

 parallel, united at the base, two directed backwards, the first small, the fourth almost as long as 

 the third, claws moderate, arched, compressed, laterally grooved, acute ; plumage soft ; tongue 

 extensile, vermiform, the tip horny, flat, tapering, without bristles. 



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