50 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
I assured him that he was mistaken, that I had 
heard the cry of the bird many times, and had even 
heard it once at a distance since our conversation 
begun. Hearing that distant cry had caused me 
to ask the question. 
All at once he remembered that he knew, or had 
known formerly, the wryneck very well, but he 
had never learnt its name. About twenty or 
twenty-five years ago, he said, he saw the bird 
I had just described in his orchard, and as it 
appeared day after day and had a strange appear- 
ance as it moved up the tree trunks, he began to 
be interested in it. One day he saw it fly into 
a hole close to the ground in an old apple tree. 
" Now I've got you ! " he exclaimed, and running to 
the spot, thrust his hand in as far as he could, but 
was unable to reach the bird. Then he conceived 
the idea of starving it out, and stopped up the hole 
with clay. The following day at the same hour he 
again put in his hand, and this time succeeded in 
taking the bird. So strange was it to him, that after 
showing it to his own family he took it round to 
exhibit it to his neighbours, and although some of 
them were old men, not one among them had ever 
seen its like before. They concluded that it was 
a kind of nuthatch, but unlike the common nut- 
hatch which they knew. After they had all seen 
and handled it and had finished the discussions 
