WRYNECK 
169 
jar's and Woodcock's, and it has a peculiarly 
flexible neck which it is never tired of twisting 
into odd and restless contortions, as it slips about 
its insect-hunting business. This is one reason for 
its name of Snake-bird, and its recognised English 
title bears reference to the same peculiarity. 
If caught in the hand upon the nest, which it is 
extremely unwilling to leave, its attitudes are 
sometimes perfectly extraordinary, while at other 
times it will lie absolutely motionless, and 
apparently simulate death. It lays its eggs about 
the end of April in a hole in a tree or post, or, 
much more rarely, in a bank ; a casual layer of 
the soft, rotten wood generally found in the hole 
is the only nesting-material. It is one of the 
most interesting of the birds which will often occupy 
an artificial nesting-box when fixed to a tree in a 
garden, and it is advisable to bear this taste in 
mind, and to cover the bottom of a box intended 
for a Wryneck with some crumbled touchwood, or 
a sprinkling of sawdust. The eggs are from six 
to ten in number, rather larger than a Robin's, 
and pure, glossy white. When disturbed upon 
the nest the Wryneck often utters a vigorous 
hissing noise ; this is another peculiarity which 
recalls the snake, though most of the Tits have 
the same habit. The Wryneck feeds on various 
forms of insect life, and is particularly fond of 
