THE HOOPOE 



NO garden is worthy of the name if it possesses 

 not a lawn of emerald grass, soft as velvet ; 

 likewise, no lawn in India is complete unless 

 it be ornamented by one or two hoopoes. 

 Delightful birds, these, and as unique as delightful. 

 There are no birds like unto them. Theirs is a profes- 

 sion of which they enjoy a monopoly. They are the 

 only birds which habitually dig into the springy turf for 

 their insect food. Snipe, sandpipers, and innumerable 

 other birds probe the soft mud of river-bank, marsh, or 

 jhil for their prey ; the hoopoe alone is able to force its 

 long beak deep into dry soil. The bill of the ordinary 

 long-billed bird is soft and pliant ; that of the hoopoe is 

 hard and stiff. 



The hoopoe, then, as regards its manner of obtaining 

 food, is a kind of dry-land snipe. It is, of course, in no 

 way related to the snipe ; the resemblance of the beak 

 in the two species is but the result of similarity of habit. 

 The snipe wades in water, so has long legs ; the legs of 

 the hoopoe are very short, so short that the bird has to 

 walk very primly in order to keep its tail from touching 

 the ground. 



Hoopoes are exceedingly numerous in India. It is 



139 



