430 HOODIE—HOOPOE 



pp. 308, 309) and Mr. Sclater (/6zs, 1870, pp. 176-180) that it was 

 more allied to the Capitonidx (Barbet), and, in consequence, was then 

 made the type of a distinct Family, Indicatoridse. The correctness 

 of this view was proved by Garrod (Proc. Zool. Sac. 1878, pp. 930- 

 935). In the meanwhile other species had been discovered, some 

 of them differing sufficiently to warrant Sundevall's foundation of 

 a second genus, Prodotiscus, of the group. The Honey-Guides are 

 small birds, the largest hardly exceeding a Lark in size, and of plain 

 plumage, with what appears to be a very Sparrow-like bill. Captain 

 Shelley in 1891 (Ccct. B. Br. Mits. xix. pp. 1-12) recognized nine 



species and one subspecies of the genus 

 Indicfifor, and two of Prodotiscus. Four of 

 the former, including /. sparnnani, which 

 was the first made known, are found in 

 South Africa, and one of Prodotiscus. The 

 rest inhabit other parts of the same con- 

 tinent, except /. archipelagicus, which belongs 



Indicator. (After Swainson.) , -r. ^ -^r t ^ t ,i , 



to Borneo and Malacca, and 1. xanthonotus, 

 Avhich occurs on the Himalayas from the borders of Afghanistan 

 to Bhotan. The interrupted geographical distribution of this genus 

 is an instructive fact. 



HOODIE, properly the Scottish name for the Grey or Hooded 

 Crow, but occasionally used also for the Black form. 



HOOPOE (French Huppe, Latin Upupa, Greek Ittoxj^ — all names 

 bestowed apparently from its cry), a bird long celebrated in litera- 

 ture, and conspicuous by its variegated plumage and its large 

 erectile crest,^ the Upupa epops of naturalists, which is the type of 

 the very peculiar Family Upupicla:, placed by Prof. Huxley in his 

 group Coccygomorphie, but considered by Dr. Murie {Ibis, 1873, j). 

 208) to deserve separate rank as Epopomorphx. This species has an 

 exceedingly wide range in the Old World, being a regular summer- 

 visitant to the whole of Europe, in some parts of Avhich it is abun- 

 dant, as well as to Siberia, mostl}' retiring southwards in autumn 

 to winter in equatorial Africa and India, though it would seem to 

 be resident throughout the year in North-Eastern Africa and in 

 China. Its poAver of wing ordinarily seems to be feeble ; but it is 

 capable of ver}- extended flight, as is testified by its wandering 

 habits (for it occasionally makes its appearance in places very far 

 removed from its usual haunts), and also by the fact that Avhen 

 pursued by a Falcon it will rapidly mount to an extreme height and 

 frequently effect its escape from the enemy. About the size of a 

 Thrush, with a long, pointed, and slightly arched bill, its head and 



1 Hence the secondary meaning of the French word huppc — a crest or tuft 

 (c/. Littre, Lict. Francaisc, i. 2067). 



