The Wryneck. 49 



Bechstein avers that it -will eat berries, but this I greatly 

 doubt, not having seen the statement confirmed by other and 

 more recent writers. Mr. Swaysland recommends that in the 

 house it should be fed on scraped beef and egg, soaked bread 

 and hemp seed; to which latter recommendation I demur, for 

 the reasons already given in the chapter on the Eedbreast; 

 namely, that the shell, which it is impossible altogether to 

 separate from the kernel, is very indigestible, and unfit for 

 insectivorous birds, whose stomach and intestines it soon de- 

 ranges, giving rise to dyspepsia and its crowd of attendant 

 evils. Mr. Swaysland continues, "it should also be given ants' 

 eggs, mealworms, gentles, beetles, or other insects, either 

 separately, or mixed with its other food." 



The Wryneck is considered to be a member of the Wood- 

 pecker family, and like those birds climbs very nimbly up 

 the trunks of trees, probing every little crevice in the bark 

 with its long tongue, in search of insects. The arrangement 

 of the Wryneck's toes is similar to that which obtains in the 

 Parrot and Woodpecker families; namely, two of them are 

 turned to the front and two behind. 



The nest is made in a hollow branch, or trunk of a tree; 

 the eggs are white, and seven or eight in number, and the 

 young are reared on insects. All the writers I have seen 

 who treat of these birds, assert that if taken from the nest 

 while young, and fed on insects and scraped meat, they soon 

 become very famUiar. M. de Sohauroth had two of these 

 birds which learned to fly out into the garden and return 

 when called by their master, to whom they seemed to be 

 very much attached. 



The plumage of the Wryneck is very pretty, and its move- 

 ments and antics very amusing; to which qualifications as a 

 home pet, if we add its tameness, it will be seen that few 

 birds are more desirable in the house, especially in the country, 

 where there would not be nearly as much difficulty in pro- 

 viding it with suitable food, as in a town. 



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