This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...Wryneck is 'Yunx torquilla. remarkable for a habit of twisting the neck with a slow undulatory movement, like that of a snake, turning its head back and closing its eyes. In 1865 a pair of these birds built their nest in a hole in an apple-tree in an orchard near Burnham. The female was caught one day while sitting on ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ...Wryneck is 'Yunx torquilla. remarkable for a habit of twisting the neck with a slow undulatory movement, like that of a snake, turning its head back and closing its eyes. In 1865 a pair of these birds built their nest in a hole in an apple-tree in an orchard near Burnham. The female was caught one day while sitting on her eggs and carried to Eton, where it was sold to a gentleman who set it at liberty. Its captor observed the bird on the apple-tree the next morning, and as he had marked it there could have been no mistake. Instinct had enabled this bird to find its way back again, after having been carried in the boy's pocket a distance of seven miles. The little "Creeper"1 is a still smaller bird, of rather livelier habits, often seen clinging to the rough bark of an old elm, and advancing by short jerks. As it climbs it searches every crevice, proceeding upwards, now on one side, and now on the other. At length it reaches the branches and moves along them, sometimes on the top, but as often beneath, hanging on meanwhile with its back towards the ground. Thus like a mouse it creeps over the tree, uttering at times a shrill and feeble cry, and then flies off to another, commencing again at the base. The " Nuthatch "2 is a rarer and more local bird, although it remains throughout the year. It has the same habit of creeping up the bark of trees, but differs in one respect from the other climbers in the readiness with which it passes downwards head foremost. Its food is not by any means confined to insects, but is varied with nuts and seeds. One writer says, "Its dexterity in opening nuts and the stones of fruits is curious; it fixes the nut in a crack on the top of a post, or on the bark of a tree, and placing itself above it, head do...
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