T he W ryneck is a common bird, and a well known
summer visiter to this country, arriving in the first or second
week of April, and departing by the end of August or early
in September. As the Wryneck makes its appearance here
about the same time as the Guekoo, it has from some supposed
connection with that bird acquired the names of
Cuckoo’s- Mate, and CuQkoo’s Maid. Pennant says the
Welsh name for this bird (Gwds y gog) means also Cuckoo’s
attendant; but it is scarcely necessary to add that, except in
the circumstance of the two species arriving here, and again
departing hence, about the same period of each spring and
autumn, these two birds have indeed scarcely any other point
of similarity between them. The Wryneck is, in fact, rather
solitary in its habits, being very seldom seen associating with,
or even near, any other bird than its own single partner, and
that too but for a very limited portion of the year.
Without any rich or attractive colours in its plumage, the
Wryneck is still a handsome bird from the singularly beautiful
manner in which the various markings and the shades of
brown and grey are distributed. I t is provided with a long
tongue, and with feet similar -to. those of the Woodpeckers,
but has not the stiff tail-feathers like those birds, and is, as
might be expected, less of a climber than the species- of the
genus Picus. I t frequents small copses, plantations, orchards,
and fields enclosed with tall hedges.
This bird is called a Wryneck from the habit it exhibits of
moving, its head and neck in various directions, sometimes
describing parts of circles, at others from side to side, with
an undulating motion not unlike the actions of a snake, and
in some of the counties of England this bird is called the
Snakebird from this circumstance. When found in its retreat
in the hole of a tree, it makes a loud hissing, noise, sets
up an elongated crest, and writhing its head and neck towards
each shoulder alternately, with grotesque contortions, becomes
an object of terror to a timid intruder, and the bird
taking advantage of a moment of indecision, darts with the
rapidity of lightning from a situation whence escape seemed
impossible;
These birds feed on caterpillars and various other insects,
and are often seen on the ground near ant-hills, consuming
as food large quantities of the ants and their eggs. Bech-
stein says the Wryneck will eat elderberries. The anatomical
construction of the tongue and its appendages in the
Wryneck, and the consequent mode of taking its food, like
the Woodpeckers, will amply repay the closest examination.
By an elongation of the two posterior branches of the bones
of the tohgue, and the exercise of the muscles attached to
them, this bird is able to extend the tongue a very considerable
distance beyond the point of the beak; the end of thé
tongue is horny and hard ; a large and long gland is situated
at the under edge of the lower jaw on each side, which
secretes a glutinous mucus, and transfers it to the inside of
the mouth by a slender duct. With this glutinous mucus
the end of the tohgue is always covered, for the especial
purpose of conveying food into the mouth by contact. So
unerring is the aim with which the tongue is darted out, and
so certain the effect of thé adhesive moisture, that the bird
never fails in obtaining its object at every attempt. So rapid,
also* ds the action of the tongue in thus conveying food into
the mouth, that the eye is unable distinctly to follow it, and
Colonel Montagu, who had an opportunity of observing this
bird feed while confined in a cage, says, that an ant’s egg,
which is of a light colour, and more conspicuous than the
tongue, had somewhat the appearance of moving towards the
mouth by attraction, as a needle flies to a magnet. In consequence
of this bird feeding frequently at the ant-hills, the
author of the Journal of a Naturalist, has observed, that its
long glutinous tongue collects much of the soil of the heaps,