314 WRYNECK. Class II. 



not only makes use of it to pick those insects 

 out of their retreat, but like that quadruped 

 may lay it across their path, and when covered 

 with ants draw it into its mouth. 



Its weight is one ounce and a quarter : the 

 length seven inches ; the breadth eleven. It 

 takes its name from a manner it has of turning 

 its head back to the shoulders, especially when 

 terrified ; it has also the faculty of erecting the 

 feathers of the head like those of the jay. Its 

 note is like that of the Kestrel, a quick repeated 

 squeak. Its eggs are white, and have so thin a 

 shell that the yolk may be seen through it. It 

 builds in the hollows of trees, making its nest of 

 dry grass, in which we have counted nine young. 



[In Gloucestershire it is called the Cuckoo 

 Maid, and Cuckoo Fool, from its attendance on 

 that bird, and from its being considered as the 

 most foolish of the feathered tribe; also the 

 Snake bird, from its resemblance to that reptile 

 in the form, color, and singular contortion of the 

 neck in various ways, and particularly when the 

 body is held in the hand, and the head at 

 liberty. Ed.] 



