5 68 
RICARIAN BIRDS. 
peckers, but even longer than is usual in that family, and the way in which it darts 
its tongue out rapidly, completes the resemblance of the head to that of a snake, 
and has doubtless had something to do with its sobriquet of snake-bird. The 
common wryneck (/. torquilla) is a summer visitor to Europe and Northern 
Asia; in many parts of Great Britain being known, besides its name of snake- 
bird, as the cuckoo’s-mate, since it generally arrives a little before that bird, 
and is supposed to be a harbinger of the cuckoo’s arrival in the spring. It is 
also called in some parts of England the pee-pee, doubtless from its curious note, 
which resembles the words pee-pee-pee uttered in a somewhat shrill voice. In 
summer the wryneck is found over the 
greater part of Europe and Asia, extending 
even to Japan; its northern range being about 
62° north latitude. Both the Indian and 
the Japanese birds have been considered to 
be distinct, but Mr. Hargitt recognises but 
one form. The Asiatic birds which breed 
in the countries north of the Himalaya, 
and even in Kashmir, winter in the Indian 
Peninsula, and the Japanese birds in China 
and the Burmese countries. The European 
wrynecks appear to winter in Northern 
Africa and extend to Abyssinia, and on the 
west coast to Senegambia. The wryneck 
does not climb trees like a woodpecker, 
though it clings to the trunk of a tree in 
pursuit of its insect-food. It feeds largely 
wryneck on an ^ s > an( l is often seen on the ground 
in pursuit of its prey; and, unlike the 
woodpecker, it does not bore a nest-hole, but selects one in a tree, generally a 
decayed fruit-tree, as it is fond of frequenting orchards. The eggs are sometimes 
as many as ten in number, but the average number is seven or eight. They 
are white like those of a woodpecker, but not quite so glossy. 
The Honey-Guides. 
Family INDICATORIDJE. 
Long classified with the cuckoos, which they resemble in the structure of their 
feet, while they are also believed to lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, the 
honey-guides are now recognised as a distinct group. In place of selecting totally 
different birds, the honey-guides appear to choose for victims their own nearest 
kindred, such as the barbets and woodpeckers; the little lioney-guide depositing its 
white eggs into the nests of the red-vented woodpecker, the little tinker-barbet, or 
the pied barbet, while the large white-backed honey-guide selects the banded 
barbet as its victim. In structure the honey-guides are now admitted to be akin to 
woodpeckers and barbets, having many characters in common with both those groups, 
