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The Eurasian wryneck (''Jynx torquilla'') is a species of wryneck in the woodpecker family. This species mainly breeds in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. Most populations are migratory, wintering in tropical Africa and in southern Asia from Iran to the Indian Subcontinent, but some are resident in northwestern Africa. It is a bird of open countryside, woodland and orchards. Eurasian wrynecks measure about in length and have bills shorter and less dagger-like than those of other woodpeckers. Their upperparts are barred and mottled in shades of pale brown with rufous and blackish bars and wider black streaks. Their underparts are cream speckled and spotted with brown. Their chief prey is ants and other insects, which they find in decaying wood or on the ground. The eggs are white as is the case with many birds that nest in holes and a clutch of seven to ten eggs is laid during May and June. These birds get their English name from their ability to turn their heads through almost 180 degrees. When disturbed at the nest, they use this snake-like head twisting and hissing as a threat display. This odd behaviour led to their use in witchcraft, hence to put a "jinx" on someone. ==Taxonomy and etymology== The Eurasian wryneck was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' in 1758. The type species came from Sweden.〔 The genus name ''Jynx'' comes from the Latin ''iynx'', the name for the bird. It had occasionally been used in magic and divination because of its remarkable ability to twist its neck and head through almost 180 degrees while hissing like a snake. The ''Online Etymology Dictionary'' entry for "jinx" states that the word was first used, as a noun, in American English in 1911. It traces it to a 17th-century word ''jyng'', meaning "a spell", and ultimately to the Latin word ''iynx''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Online Etymology Dictionary: Jinx )〕 The Picidae family has four subfamilies, the Picinae (woodpeckers), the Picumninae (piculets), the Jynginae (wrynecks) and the monotypic Nesoctitinae (Antillean piculet). Based on morphology and behaviour, the Picumninae was considered to be the sister clade of the Picinae. This has now been confirmed by phylogenetic analysis and the Jynginae are placed basal to the Picinae, Nesoctitinae and Picumninae.〔 Jynginae includes one genus (''Jynx'') and two species, the Eurasian wryneck and the red-throated wryneck (''Jynx ruficollis''), resident in sub-Saharan Africa. There are six subspecies of ''Jynx torquilla'': * ''Jynx torquilla chinensis'' Hesse, 1911 * ''Jynx torquilla himalayana'' Vaurie, 1959 * ''Jynx torquilla mauretanica'' Rothschild, 1909 * ''Jynx torquilla sarudnyi'' Loudon, 1912 * ''Jynx torquilla torquilla'' Linnaeus, 1758 * ''Jynx torquilla tschusii'' O. Kleinschmidt,1907 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eurasian wryneck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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