PICINiE. YUNX. 223 
rounded, of ten broad, rounded feathers, of ordinary struc- 
ture. 
This genus is connected with the Picinae by the form of 
the bill, and the extensile tongue, which, however, is not 
barbed. 
145. Yunx Torquilla. Wryneck. 
Plumage of the upper parts brownish-grey, spotted, undu- 
lated, and dotted with blackish-brown ; a longitudinal band of 
dark brown on the hind neck ; the fore neck and sides grey- 
ish-yellow, with transverse narrow bars of brownish-black. 
IVTnIp ^11Q7 6 9 8 4 
malt;, y, ii, yp Y2-, 
The Wryneck, which is one of the most beautiful of our 
native birds, arrives from the middle to the end of April, ge- 
nerally preceding the Cuckoo, and disperses over the country, 
extending northward as far as the middle division of Scotland. 
It feeds on insects, larvae, and ants, which it seizes by means 
of its tongue, in the manner of the Woodpeckers. It is re-g^ 
markable for a habit of twisting its neck, with a slow undula- 
tory motion, turning its head back and closing its eyes, whence 
its common name. The nest is merely the rounded bottom 
of a cavity or hole in a tree, which the bird adapts to its pur- 
pose by means of its bill. The eggs, seven or eight, are pure 
white, ten-twelfths long, seven-twelfths in breadth. 
Emmet-hunter. Long-tongue. Cuckoo’s maid or mate. 
Snake-bird. Turkey Bird. Barley Bird. 
Yunx Torquilla, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 172. — Yunx Torquilla, 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 403. — Yunx Torquilla, Wryneck, 
MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 100. 
The beautiful, very extensive, and generally distributed 
family of Pigeons, appears to form an order of itself, sepa- 
rated by well defined limits. Some have considered it as 
belonging to the Basores or Gallinaceous Birds, others as 
belonging to the Insessores or Perchers. In my opinion it 
belongs to neither. 
