Genus UPUPA, Linn.
nN aN VI NTO ane lee ee : 1 ,
Gen. Cuar. Beak very long, slightly arched, slender, triangular and compressed. Nosérals
basal, lateral, ovoid, open, surmounted by the feathers of the forehead. Toes three before,

and one behind; the external and middle ones united as far as the first joint. Vaz/s short,

a little bent, except in the hind one which is straight. Tail square, consisting of ten feathers.

Wings moderate ; fourth and fifth guel-feathers the longest.

HOOPOE.

Upupa epops, Linn.
La Huppe.

Tere are few birds more elegant in their appearance or more singular in their manners than the Hoopoe ;
and although it is not a resident in the British Isles, nor strictly a periodical visitor, we are, from its frequent
occurrence, enabled to give much information respecting its natural habits and modes of life. The genus to
which it belongs is extremely limited in the number of its species, three only being at present recognised.
Our European example, the Upupa epops, may be regarded as a migratory bird, and its natural range is very
extensive. It is found over nearly the whole of Africa; India and China may also be enumerated among the
countries it inhabits, as specimens received from the latter and the Himalaya mountains sufficiently testify.
In continental Europe, it is spread from the southern to the northern extremities, but is more abundant in
the former, where it appears to be a bird of regular and periodical passage ; being, however, regulated in these
migrations by the abundance of the food upon which it subsists, viz., the larvae of scarabzi, together with other
insects which live near moist and humid grounds, not even rejecting tadpoles, small frogs, and worms. In the
British Islands, as we have already observed, its occurrence is very irregular, being scarce in some seasons,
and much more frequent in others ; and when it does visit us, its animated motions and foreign appearance,
unfortunately for the bird, bring round it a host of persecutors. ‘There are, however, a few instances on
record of its having bred among us. The southern coast of England, as we might most naturally expect, is
that on which it makes its first appearance, generally in the month of May; hence they disperse themselves
over the Island, and are often met with in the most unexpected localities ; but the situations most preferred are
thick hedgerows, copses, and isolated trees or bushes, in the neighbourhood of low marshy lands : they seem to
have but little care respecting their concealment, generally perching on the most conspicuous branch, erecting
and depressing the beautiful fan-like crest as if to attract observation: but though it perches upon trees, it is
not, as its peculiar legs and feet indicate, a bird ordained by nature to be an exclusive inhabitant of the
woods and groves, its feeble toes being ill adapted for clasping with strength and firmness. Its flight is slow
and undulating, similar to that of the Woodpeckers.

To enumerate its frequent capture in England would neither add to science nor to a knowledge of its habits ;
still we beg to mention an instance, which came within our knowledge, of one shot by L. Sullivan, Esq. on the
28th of September 18832, in his own pleasure-grounds at Broom House, Fulham, Middlesex ; and we are led
to suppose, from the lateness of the season, that it had incubated in the neighbourhood. It chooses for the
site of its nest a variety of situations, as opportunity may serve ; holes in trees; crevices in rocks, pe in
walls or masonry, holes in the ground or dungheaps, being among the places it has been observed at different
times to occupy: the eggs are five in number, clouded with dark grey OL a hig grey ground.

The young soon assume the adult plumage, which is precisely smaller either sex.

The ground colour of the head, neck, and shoulders is of a beautiful fawn 5 a double row of long feathers
surmounts the head, beginning at the base of the beak and ending at the occiput, capable of being thrown up
perpendicularly, so as to form a fan-like crest ; each of mere feathers is tipped with eo the ae
and scapulars are banded alternately with black and white ; the quills are black with 4 white o i a ba
rump white ; tail black banded across the middle with white ; the flanks and under tail-coverts light greyish
fawn dashed with obscure lines of brown.

We have figured two adult birds of the natural size.

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