258 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



more abundant if not persecuted. From all that can be 

 gathered respecting its sojourn there is little doubt that 

 the bird has bred in the county. 



Latham, in his S!j)wpsis, ii., p. 688 (1782), gives Kent 

 as a locality for the Hoopoe, and m the Supplement, 

 p. 123, he states : " The last year, 1786, a young bird was 

 sent to me, on May 10, full-fledged, shot near Southfleet, 

 in Kent, by Mr. Godden ; but the old birds had not been 

 observed." 



Boys in his Birds of Sandwich, 1792, adds the 

 Hoopoe to the birds of that district. In the Topography 

 of Maidstone, 1839, it is mentioned that " one of these 

 curious birds w^as shot at Style Bridge, near Marden." 

 The Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in 1844, says : " We 

 generally receive an annual visit from one or more speci- 

 mens of this very pretty bird." Dr. F. Plomley has 

 three specimens, killed in Romney Marsh. Two more 

 were killed at Fredville, a year or two since, and one at 

 Ileden, in the parish of Kingston." There are specimens 

 in the collection of the late Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond, 

 from Nonington, in Kent, and from Lydd, now in the 

 Canterbury Museum. One labelled Kent in the Exeter 

 Museum, the bequest of the Rev. Bower-Scott. 



In the Zoologist, 1844, Mr. E. H. M. Sladen writes : 

 " The Hoopoe can scarcely be called an uncommon bird 

 now in some parts of England. As Mr. Bartlett says, it 

 generally visits the east of Kent annually. Several have 

 been seen at Ripple Court, near Deal, and one was shot, 

 and is now possessed by the family there." 



Mr. W. H. Cordeaux, writing to the Zoologist in 1851, 

 says: "A fine specimen of this beautiful bird was shot 

 a fortnight since, in Lower Walmer. It weighs about 12 

 ounces and is nearly 12 inches in length. This, with the 



