123 



disease set up, and characterized, by the infection of 

 the blood and tissues of a living animal by certain 

 organisms, which, when they attack dead tissues, in 

 only that case cause putrefaction ; and this is not 

 quite the same thing as what the lay dictionary tells us. 

 Septicaemia is one thing and is sometimes found in the 

 living; putridity is another thing and is only found in 

 dead tissues ; both alike being caused by various 

 organisms which are not only saprophytic but are 

 also capable under some conditions of being parasitic.-'* 

 A dead bird whose internal organs are in a 

 "depraved" condition is simply a putrid bird, and 

 except in one class of case it is not possible to say 

 that the septic organism inhabited it during life and 

 caused its death. Oddly enough it is just this class 

 of case which is never recognized as septicaemia by 

 our quasi-scientific friends. 



(To be continued) . 



Bii& IRotcs from tbe (Bambia. 



By E. HOPKINSON, D.S.O., M.A., M.B. 



(Co7itinued jrom page 103/'. 



'^ now pass to the HOOPOES, a family of 

 which we have representatives of each of 

 its sub-families, namely one of the first, 

 the Up2ipi7icB, and two of the latter, the 



m, 



IrrisoriJics. The first is the Common Hoopoe (^U. 

 epops), which is found throughout a great part of the 

 old world, and which not infrequently visits England : 

 where, I believe, it has even bred, when by some 

 chance a pair has had the extraordinary luck to 

 escape the collecting gun. Here it is by no means an 

 uncommon bird, and, I should think, certainly nests 



• Bh-d Notes, Vol. II. pa^e 114. 



