i8o THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



the bird has even been known to make its nest in the 

 chest of a decaying corpse. The nest is merely a few 

 bits of dry grass, straw, or roots, more or less mixed 

 with offensive matter of some kind. The nest often 

 emits a terrible stench, owing to this proclivity, and the 

 fact that the droppings are allowed to remain in the 

 hole. The eggs, however, sometimes rest on the powdered 

 wood alone. The Hoopoe is a close sitter, allowing 

 herself to be lifted from the eggs rather than desert her 

 charge. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Hoopoe are from five to seven in 

 number, pale greenish-blue, or pale olive, lavender-gray, 

 or even pale buff in colour, without markings. The 

 shell is more or less glossy, and full of minute pits and 

 streaky hollows, something like the rind of a melon on 

 a very small scale, and which often gives them an 

 appearance of being dusted over with white specks. 

 Average measurement, I'O inch in length, by 7 inch in 

 breadth. Incubation, performed by the female, is said 

 by Naumann to last sixteen days. 



Diagnostic characters : The remarkable shell- 

 texture of the eggs of the Hoopoe readily distinguishes 

 them from the eggs of all other birds breeding in our 

 islands, or even in Europe. 



