326 The Field Naturalises Quarterly November 

 The Hoopoe. 



By J. L. Bevir, M.A. 



As a boy lately come to a public school with a certain 

 vague taste for natural history, nothing excited my fancy 

 more than the statement of one of my seniors that he had 

 seen a hoopoe sitting on the top of the bathing-shed- — a 

 fact which is recorded in the Wellington College N. S. S. 

 report for 1868. I knew of its existence as an English 

 bird from White's Selboj-ne — " The most unusual birds I 

 ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopoes which 

 came several years ago in the summer, and frequented an 

 ornamental piece of ground, which joins my garden, for 

 some weeks. They used to march about in a stately 

 manner, feeding in the walks many times in the day, and 

 seemed disposed to breed in my outlet." 



The idea of the bird with its crimson crest fascinated 

 me, and it pleased me in my schooldays to meet it again 

 in its royal position in Aristophanes, and seemed quite a 

 friend when I found the unfortunate Tyndarus in the 

 Captivi making a pun on it, when he says, " For when I 

 arrived (at the quarries), just as children of noble families 

 have jackdaws or ducks or quails given them to play with, 

 just so with me, there was a hoopoe (or pickaxe) given me 

 to amuse myself with." 



It was not till I became familiar with them in Corsica, 

 where one sees them in numbers, that I understood the 

 appropriateness of the allusion. I have often seen them 

 settle on the stones between great tufts of asphodel, and set 

 to work pecking and picking like the wooden ostrich of our 

 childhood, which works with a swing balance under the 

 table. When the weight swings fast the beak comes down 

 with a sharp peck, but when it only swings slowly the neck 

 gives a quaint little nod. This motion one gets too in the 

 hoopoe, who is perpetually bobbing his head backward and 

 forward. My brother, writing from the Upper Nile, says, 

 " I think he is often called by the Arabs (aboo abad) the 

 Father of Worship, from his constantly nodding." 



