114 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Aug. 29, 1868; Dec. 21, 1895; and Jan. 11, 1896; 

 where information is given concerning the food and 

 treatment adopted. 



Fam. UPUPID^. 



{ HOOPOE. Uioupa epops, Linnseus. PI. 14, figs. 8, 8a. 



^ Length, 12 in. ; bill, 2-25 in. ; wing, 5-75 in. 



An irregular spring and autumn migrant, but 

 on several occasions has been observed in w^inter. 



Charlton in his " Onomasticon Zoicon" (1668) 

 gives a life-size engraving (p, 92) of a Hoopoe 

 killed near London in the winter of 1666-7, and 

 Dr. Charles Smith in his "Ancient and Present 

 State of Waterford," 2nd edit., 1774, records another 

 which was shot on the ruins of the old church of 

 Stradbally during the great frost of 1739. Hunt 

 Teceived specimens shot in Norfolk in November 

 and December ; and Graves records one killed at 

 Musselburgh in February {Nat. Journ., i. p. 22). 

 Others have been obtained at Scilly, in January 

 (Blyth, Mag. Nat. Hist., ii. p. 595) ; at Thetford, in 

 December (Zool., 1847, p. 1693); near Oxford, Feb- 

 ruary 1838 (Matthews); and at Hartfield, Sussex, 

 Dec. 14, 1897. Mr. W. H. St. Quintin reported 

 {Field, Jan. 25, 1896) having watched on Jan. 11 

 the movements of a Hoopoe which had been seen 

 for a week or more on an isolated farm at some 

 distance from Rillington, Yorks. It is regarded as 

 a straggler to Scotland (Gray, "Birds of the West 

 of Scotland," p. 198). Two were shot in Dumfries- 



