THE HOOPOE 



{UPUPA EPOPS) 



TjlOR two centuries or more this beautiful and 

 -■- curious bird has been known to visit the 

 British Islands in spring to breed. There can be 

 little or no doubt that in the olden times the 

 Hoopoe was commoner and more widely dispersed 

 than it is now, and that, like so many other 

 interesting species, it has been well-nigh exter- 

 minated for the sake of its beauty or novel and 

 curious appearance. The British stock of Hoopoes, 

 however, does not yet seem to be quite exhausted, 

 and we may still regard the bird as a regular spring 

 migrant to the southern counties of England. We 

 must, however, bear in mind that the constant 

 persecution which the species suffers in our islands, 

 the failure to rear offspring in them, must sooner 

 or later end in the complete extirpation of the 

 Hoopoe as a British bird. We doubt not that 

 careful preservation for a few years would end in 



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