2 
■BEA.UTIFUL BIRDS. 
liybernation of these remarkable insects lias yielded 
to the influence of the vernal sun, and the societies 
are busily employed near the surface of their little 
mounds in the various duties so admirably described by 
Huber and the authors of the “Introduction to En- 
tomology.” Its departure is also regulated by the 
same laws, as it leaves us when these insects, upon the 
approach of autumn or cold weather, again retire to the 
recesses of their subterranean habitations. 
The mode by which the AVryneck picks up its food 
has not, it appears, been exactly ascertained. AYhite 
of Selborne says the AYrynecks thrust their bills 
into the turf in quest of ants, which are their food. 
AYhile they hold their bills in the grass, they draw 
out their prey with their tongues, which are so 
long as to be coiled round their heads. Colonel Alon- 
tagu says that the ants are not transfixed by the 
horny point, as some have imagined, but retained by a 
peculiar tenacious moisture, by nature provided for 
that purpose ; while it is feeding the body is motionless, 
the liead only is turned to every side, and the motion 
of the tongue is so rapid, that an ant’s egg, which is of 
a light colour, and more conspicuous than the tongue, 
lias somewhat the appearance of moving towards the 
mouth by attraction, as a needle flies to a magnet. 
The bill is rarely used except to remove the mould, in 
order to get more readily at these insects ; where the 
earth is hollow, the tongue is thrust into all the cavities 
to rouse the ants ; for this purpose the horny appendage 
is extremely serviceable, as a guide to the tongue. Mr. 
Eeunie having procured a young bird of this species, 
placed it in a cage in which was the empty nest of a 
