578 
WYNKERNEL. 
nest, it has a singular action of defence : stretching itself at full length, 
and erecting the feathers on the head, it suddenly rises, making at the 
same time a short hissing noise, something like that of a cock turkey. 
This was frequently done in the cage when it was approached. *Mr. 
Knapp thus happily describes the habits of this bird : — “ Shy and un- 
usually timid,” says he, “ as if all its life were spent in the deepest 
retirement away from man, it remains through the day on some ditch- 
bank, or basks with seeming enjoyment, in any sunny hour, on the 
ant-hills nearest to its retreat ; and these it depopulates for food, by 
means of its long glutinous tongue, which, with the insects, collects 
much of the soil of the heaps, as we find a much larger portion of grit 
in its stomach than is usually met with in that of other birds. When 
disturbed, it escapes by a flight precipitate and awkward, hides itself 
from our sight, and, were not its haunts and habits known, we should 
never conjecture that this bustling fugitive was our long-forgotten 
spring visitant, the Wryneck. The winter or spring of 1818 was, 
from some unknown cause, singularly unfavourable for this bird. It 
generally arrives before the middle of April ; and its vernal note, so 
unlike that of any of its companions, announces its presence throughout 
all the mild mornings of this month, and part of the following; but 
during the spring of that year it was perfectly silent, or absent from us. 
The season, it is true, was unusually cheerless and ungenial.”* 
It is not uncommon in the southern and eastern parts of the king- 
dom ; but is more scarce westward, and is rarely if ever found in Corn- 
wall. It chiefly inhabits woods, orchards, or thickly-enclosed countries, 
where trees abound. It is seldom observed to climb trees, although 
the feet seem calculated for that purpose. It is said sometimes to 
make a nest of dry grass ; but the eggs we have repeatedly taken from 
a hole in a bare decayed tree, and rotten wood. 
WYNKERNEL.— -A name for the Gallinule. 
