HOOPOE 439 



of hunger ; and there is an instance recorded of one of these birds 

 having been taken in a lobster-pot. As to whether they have ever 

 been caught with a h'ne while spinning, there appears to be no 

 information ; but on several occasions they have been known to perch 

 on the rods of anglers. A white kingfisher appears to be an ii^iiota 

 rather than a vara avis. 



Of the American belted kingfisher {Ceiyle (xlcyoti), a member of a 

 genus in which the tail is longer than in the typical kingfishers while 

 the two sexes are often somewhat different in colouring, two examples 

 were killed in Leinster during the autumn of 1845. Although not 

 obtained in the same place or at the same time, it has been suggested 

 that both these birds were captive specimens which may have escaped 

 from their cage. 



HooDoe Although familiar enough to residents in southern 



(UDUDa enoDs") Europe and India, the peculiar flute-like " u-pu-pu " 

 from which the hoopoe derives both its English and 

 Latin names is but rarely heard in Great Britain or Ireland, where 

 this beautiful bird is only an occasional visitor. Its appearances are, 

 however, perhaps somewhat less infrequent than is commonly supposed. 

 The hoopoe is the typical representative of a family (Upupidee), the 

 members of which are confined to the Old World, exclusive of 

 Australasia. In the absence of a pair of blind appendages (cieca) to 

 the intestine, as well as in the tufted character of the oil-gland, they 

 resemble kingfishers, from which, however, they are distinguished by 

 the presence of only a single notch (in place of two) on each side of 

 the hind, or lower, border of the breast-bone. Hoopoes are further 

 characterised by the long, curved, and slender beak, the short tongue, 

 and, above all, by the conspicuous erectile crest on the head, in which 

 the hindmost feathers are the largest. The number of both primary 

 wing-quills and tail-feathers is ten. 



There is of course no possibility of confounding the hoopoe with 

 any other British bird, and further description is therefore almost super- 

 fluous. It may be mentioned, however, that the general colour of both 

 upper and under parts is cinnamon, the crest being tipped with black 

 but showing some white between the black and the cinnamon (a feature 

 distinguishing the species from the Indian Upiipa i)idica)\ transverse 

 bars of buff, white, and black occupy a considerable portion of the 

 back ; the wing-quills and tail are black barred with white, the white 

 on the latter forming a single band in the basal third which extends 

 downwards towards the tips of the outer feathers ; and the legs are 



