THE WRYNECK. 
141 
occasion, tlie longer tliey remained tlie more the claws and 
tails became worn. One was caught alive and placed in a 
herring barrel ; but instead of attempting to fly, it climbed out 
with ease, to the great amazement of the beholders. 
The 1861 flock must have been widely dispersed; for in the 
month of September that year, we are informed l)y Captain 
Feilden (Zool. 1872, p. 3222), two examples were procured in 
Faroe. 
A singular variety, supposed by some to be the Middle 
Spotted "Woodpecker, Ficus meclius, was shot by me in Unst 
in September 1861. It had the crown of the head red, slightly 
spotted with black, and in this, as in most other particulars, 
resembled an ordinary example of the Great Spotted Wood- 
pecker in the plumage of its first autumn; only the under 
parts were much streaked with brownish black, and the whole 
of the wing coverts, except those immediately above the tertials, 
were ash-grey, with their central line black; the rump and 
nape of the neck were coloured in nearly the same manner, 
but with the central lines less distinctly marked. 
In a catalogue of the birds of Shetland (Zool. 1861, p. 7341), 
it is stated that a specimen of the Great Black Woodpecker 
{Ficus martius) had been killed at Belmont, in Unst. Dr 
Laurence Edmondston, who was the writer’s informant, be- 
lieved at the time that such an event had occurred ; but I 
regret to find, after most careful inquiry, that the bird in 
question was nothing more than Ficus major. 
THE WEYNECK. 
Yunx torquilla. 
The Wryneck, though so rare a species in Scotland, has been 
found both in Orkney and Shetland ; in the former once only, in 
the latter twice. One of the Shetland specimens was shot by 
Major Cameron, in the summer of 1867, in a field of his own 
at Gardie House, where he still has it in good preservation ; 
