I50 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



some root, overhanging perhaps a ditch, from which eleva- 

 tion it would dart off with a straight steady flight, its little 

 back gleaming the while like an emerald. One day one 

 of a pair was shot at and wounded. It fell into the water, 

 and immediately its mate — undeterred by the presence of 

 three people — attacked it in the most savage manner, and 

 struck it furiously a number of times with its beak. It 

 seems to be a law of nature that the strong should kill the 

 weak, sickly, and wounded, among animals. 



My specimens have much whiter throats than British 

 ones.* 



39. Hoopoe, Upupa epops, Linn. ; U. major, Brehm. ; 

 "Hidhid." 



Familiar denizen of the villages, the Hoopoe stalks about 

 on every dung-hill, perches on the mud-walled houses, pries 

 into the sakias,t and is seen on the fertile banks of the 

 river. In the Delta, where they are everywhere common, 

 I could have sometimes killed three at a shot; but like the 

 Ziczac and many others, they become scarcer up the Nile. 

 The gape in the young bird is quite as yellow as Gould 

 makes it in the " Birds of Great Britain." In Upper Egypt 

 the Arab name is Hud Hud; in the Delta, and in the 

 province of Faioum it is Hid Hid. In Algeria I found this 

 bird to be a migrant, but in Egypt which is several hundred 

 miles further south, it is a resident. 



** In the north of England a friend was fishing one day on the 

 Cocker stream, when a Kingfisher settled on his rod. He was amazed 

 and delighted at the mistake the bird had made, but of course it did 

 not stay many seconds. The incident, though curious, is not unique. I 

 have read of parallel cases two or three times. 



f Sakias are wells, and a description of them may be found in every 

 book on Egypt. 



