Class II. WRYNECK. 313 



and back. The sides of the head and neck are 

 ash colored, beautifully traversed with fine lines 

 of black and reddish brown ; the quil feathers are 

 dusky, but each web is marked with rust colored 

 spots. The chin and breast are of a light 

 yellowish brown, adorned with sharp pointed 

 bars of black. The tail consists of ten feathers, 

 broad at their ends and weak; of a pale ash 

 color, powdered with black and red, and marked 

 with four equidistant bars of black. The tongue 

 is long and cylindric, for the same use as that of 

 the woodpecker. The toes are also disposed 

 the same way. The bill is short, weak, and a 

 little arcuate. The irides are of a yellowish hazel. 



The Wryneck we believe to be a bird of pass» 

 age, appearing here in the spring before the 

 cuckoo. The JVelsh consider it as the fore- 

 runner or servant of that bird, and call it Gwds 

 y gog, or the cuckoo's attendant : the Swedes re- 

 gard it in the same light.* 



The food of this species is insects, but chiefly 

 ants, for on examination we found the stomach 

 of one filled with their remains. As the tongue 

 of this bird, like that of the Ant-bear or Ta- 

 mandria, is of an enormous length ; it possibly 



* Jynx hieme non apparet, vere autem remigrans, cuculi, post 

 quatuordecem dies, adventum ruricolis annuntiat, Amcen, acad. 

 iv. 584. 



