AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 275 



pupse, but it will eat almost any of our common 

 insects, and searches the bark of trees by climbing, 

 after the fashion of the Woodpeckers ; the tongue is 

 of extraordinary length, nearly cylindrical for some 

 distance, ending in a hard sharp point, and covered 

 with a glutinous matter, to which the insect prey 

 adheres. The flight of the Wryneck resembles that 

 of the Woodpeckers, but is apparently less laborious ; 

 its actions and attitudes on the ground are somewhat 

 awkward, on account of its short legs and its habit 

 of keeping the stiif tail " cocked " at an angle to the 

 body. The W^ryneck does not, indeed cannot, bore 

 into trees to make nesting-holes, but takes possession 

 of the laboiu's of Woodpeckers or any other cavities 

 in trees which may suit its views, and though, as far 

 as we know, it never makes any nest for itself, it will 

 lay on the materials collected by other hole-nesting 

 birds, especially, in this neighbourhood, the nests of 

 the Tree-Sparrow, giving a decided preference to the 

 hollows of old fruit-trees and pollard willows. The 

 eggs are pure white, and, according to Yarrell (4th 

 edition), vary from six to ten in number ; from our 

 experience we should say that seven is about the 

 average, but we have found nine, and once eleven ; 

 they may be distinguished from those of the Barred 

 Woodpecker by their larger size and a slight differ- 

 ence in texture of the shell, but are quite similar 

 enough to be often labelled by careless egg-collectors 

 as belonging to that species. The Wryneck appears 

 to be more or less common throughout England, but 

 scarcer in our western counties and in Wales than 

 elsewhere, rarer in Scotland, and has, according to 

 Yarrell (edition supra cit.) only once been recorded 

 as occurring in Ireland. The name Wryneck is 



t2 



