Family PICID^. Subfamily lYNGINAi. 



THE WRYNECK. 

 lynx torquilla, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 24. 



This summer visitant to England usually arrives in the first or second 

 week in April, the earliest date on which I have noted it in Surrey being the 

 4th of that month, while it takes its departure in September. Coming usually 

 about the same time as the Cuckoo, it is often called the Cuckoo's mate, and 

 in my neighbourhood it is known to country people as the "rinding bird," 

 from its arrival coinciding with the time of rinding or stripping of bark from 

 the oak. 



It is not an uncommon bird in the south-eastern counties of England, but 

 is scarcer in the west and very rare in the north, while in Scotland and Ireland 

 it is only known as a passing migrant. 



It breeds throughout the greater part of Europe, and in many of the temperate 

 portions of Asia, retiring for the winter months to tropical Africa. 



Not till some time after its arrival does the Wryneck begin its nesting 

 operations, although it may be seen about the neighbourhood of its nesting 

 hole as soon as it reaches this country. It returns year by year to the same 

 spot, and generally selects some hole in a fruit or other tree in which to deposit 

 its eggs, and if it once takes to a nesting-box will return regularly to it. I 

 have had many opportunities of watching a pair which have taken possession 

 of one fixed to the boarding of a shed in my garden. 



They frequent the neighbouring trees for some time before the eggs are laid, 

 and were it not for the peculiar notes of the male, which bear a strong resemblance 

 to the cry of a Kestrel or Hobby, and are delivered as he sits stolidly on the 

 bough of a tree, the birds might easily pass unnoticed, so quiet and unobtrusive 

 are their actions. 



No materials are gathered on which to lay the eggs ; they are merely placed 



on the wood within the hole, although if the site has been previously occupied 



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