J VR YNECKS. 
567 
Rufous Piculets. 
has seen as many young ones constituting a family and flying about with their 
parents. Mr. Gammie has found the species nesting in Sikhim, in decaying stumps 
of small trees, about three feet from the ground, in holes bored by the birds them¬ 
selves, the entrance being only about an inch in diameter. The hole was three 
and a half inches deep, and little more than an inch wide all the way; and as with 
other woodpeckers there were no nesting materials. 
The rufous piculets ( Sasia ) differ from the preceding genus in 
having the sides of the face around the eye bare. They have only 
three toes, the first being absent. In the Himalayan species (S. ochracea ) the 
general colour is rufous-olive above, rufous below; the forehead is golden-yellow 
in the male, rufous in the female, with a white stripe above the eye. In Tenasserim 
Mr. Davison found it frequenting moderately open country, especially where 
bamboos flourished. “ It keeps to the undergrowth and secondary scrub and 
bamboo-jungle, working about the fallen logs. It is wonderful what a loud sound 
one of these little fellows can produce when tapping a bamboo. I have more than 
once thought that it must have been some large woodpecker, and was astonished 
when I could not see it, and when at last I did discover the tiny object I felt quite 
as much surprised at the sound it was able to produce as it was by my sudden 
advent. It is very fond of knocking about in low brushwood. I do not know its 
call, nor do I think that I ever heard one. It is usually alone, but sometimes pairs 
are met with.” Mr. Hume has received a piece of bamboo, selected by the bird for 
its nesting-place, which was only two and a half inches in diameter. It was a dry 
bamboo, and into this, at a height of about three feet from the ground and six inches 
above the joint, the bird had drilled a small circular hole. Interiorly it had 
grooved with its little bill the whole inner aspect of the lower surface of the 
compartment, and the little, long fibrous strips thus obtained were collected at the 
bottom to form a bed for the eggs. 
The Wrynecks. 
Family IYNGIDYE. 
Of this family only four species are known, one enjoying a wide range in 
Europe and Asia, while the other three are confined to Africa south of the Sahara: 
these being lynx pectoralis, inhabiting the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, 
Natal, and the Eastern Transvaal, and extending to the Lower Congo district in 
West Africa; I. puIchricollis is known from Eastern Equatorial Africa, where it 
was discovered by Emin Pasha; and I. cequatorialis, inhabiting the southern 
provinces of Abyssinia and Shoa. The wrynecks may be termed soft-tailed wood¬ 
peckers ; and have the tail rather long, and not spiny; while the nostrils are not 
concealed by bristles, but partially hidden by a membrane. Their plumage is very 
remarkable, the whole of the upper-surface being mottled or vermiculated, as it 
is called, with a crowd of little wavy black lines. The English species is also known 
as the snake-bird, because of the curious way in which it twists and turns its 
head about, and elongates its neck, hissing all the way most vigorously, and spread¬ 
ing out the feathers of its head. It has an extensile tongue, like that of the wood- 
