432 HORNBILL 



of a tree or of a wall, is not only partly composed of the foulest 

 material, but its condition becomes worse as incubation proceeds, 

 for the hen scarcely ever leaves her eggs, being assiduously fed by 

 the cock as she sits ; and when the young are hatched, their faeces 

 are not removed by their parents, ■'■ as is the case with most birds, 

 but are discharged in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest, the 

 unsanitary condition of which can readily be imagined. Worms, 

 grubs, and insects generally, fonn the Hoopoes' food, and upon it 

 they get so fat in autumn that they are esteemed a delicate morsel in 

 some of the countries of Southern Europe, and especially by the 

 Christian population of Constantinople.^ 



Not a year passes but the Hoopoe makes its aj)pearance in some 

 part or other of Britain, most often in spring, and if unmolested 

 would doubtless stop to breed here, for a few instances are known 

 in which it has done so. But its remarkable plumage always 

 attracts attention : it is generally shot so soon as it is seen, and 

 before it has time to begin a nest, which there is reason to think 

 would not in a temperate climate become so ofi'ensive a nuisance as 

 it is in more southern latitudes. Eight or nine so-called species of 

 the genus have been described, but the existence of five only can 

 be established (Dresser, B. Eur. v. p. 184). Beside the Upupa 

 epops above treated, these are U. indica, resident in India and 

 Ceylon ; U. longirostris, which seems to be the form of the Indo- 

 Chinese countries ; U. marginata, peculiar to Madagascar ; and U. 

 africana or minor, which inhabits South Africa to the Zambesi on 

 the east and Benguela on the west coast. In habits and appearance 

 they all resemble the best-known and most widely-spread species, 

 and their particular differences need not be here pointed out.^ 



HORNBILL, the English name long ago given to all the birds 

 of the Family Bucerotidse of modern ornithologists, from the extra- 

 ordinary horn-like excrescence (epithema) developed on the bill of 

 most of the species, though to .which of them it was first applied 

 seems doubtful. Among classical authors Pliny had heard of such 

 animals, and mentions them (Hist. Nat. lib. x. cap. xlix.) under the 

 name of Tragopan ; but he deemed their existence fabulous, com- 

 paring them with Fegasi and Ch-yphones — in the words of Holland, 



1 Tliis indeed is denied by Naumann, but by him alone ; and the statement 

 in the text is confirmed by many eye-witnesses. 



- Under the name of Dukipath, in the authorized version of the Bible trans- 

 lated "Lapwing" (Lev. xi. 19, Dent. xiv. 18), the Hoopoe was accounted un- 

 clean by the " Jewish law." Arabs have a great reverence for the bird, imputing 

 to it marvellous medicinal and other qualities, and making use of its head in 

 their charms {cf. Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, pp. 20S, 209). 



^ The genera Ehinopomastus and Irrisor are generally placed in the Family 

 Upupidae, but Dr. Murie {I.e.), after an exhaustive examination of their osteology, 

 regards them as forming a group of equal value. 



