242 
PICIDiE. 
INSESSORES. 
SCANSORES. 
PJCIDyE. 
WRYNECK. 
Yunx torquilla. 
PLATE LXII. FIG. I. 
The cry of the Wryneck is as singular as that of the 
green woodpecker; and, in some instances, very closely 
resembles that of the kestrel hawk. It makes its nest 
in the holes of trees, and seems partial to those of the 
apple-tree, chiefly frequenting orchards during the breed¬ 
ing season: it usually lays seven eggs, and Montagu 
says, extends them to nine or ten in number. Mr. Salmon 
mentions a remarkable instance, in which he took no less 
than twenty-two eggs from a nest of this bird, robbing 
it of the eggs at five different times. 
Although I have spent much of my life in the country, 
and have been always on the look-out for it, I have rarely 
seen the Wryneck well, and was, therefore, the more 
surprised when, in going one day along a public road, I 
passed two of them seated side by side on the top of a 
stake fence. 
