HOOPOE. 423 



Hist. vii. p. 155) observed it examining the pollard willows 

 and poplars near Bordeaux for the sake of the insects which 

 infest their decaying trunks. Beetles of many kinds and in 

 every stage, as well as caterpillars are also eaten, and Capt. 

 Sperling (Ibis, 1864, p. 282) saw it in Ehodes hawking in the 

 air for flies. The Hoopoe is not commonly credited with 

 much power of wing, yet this fact and that of its affording 

 the falconer a good flight,* to say nothing of the vast dis- 

 tances it traverses in its yearly migrations, and of its generally 

 wandering habits,! prove that to be far greater than has been 

 supposed. Ordinarily, however, it is seen to fly but little, 

 merely flitting in an undulatory course from one feeding- 

 ground to another near by, or mounting to some place where 

 it may cleanse its bill from the soil that has accumulated 

 thereon while digging. It is seldom found far from the 

 shelter of trees or buildings, for its timidity is great. It 

 flinches from the swoop of a passing Swallow, and on the 

 appearance of a Hawk, or even a Crow, say Bechstein and 

 Naumann, it squats on the earth, spreading its tail and 

 wings, so that the latter almost meet in front, and throws 

 back its head, pointing the bill upwards, in which strange 

 posture it remains till the danger is over. Yet as regards its 

 own kind it is courageous enough, and in spring the cocks 

 fight violently, leaving, says Necker, the ground covered with 

 their feathers. 



With all its dignity and beauty, the Hoopoe possesses, as 

 has been stated, some very unpleasant peculiarities, and these 

 are intensified during the breeding-season. The eggs are 

 usually laid in a hollow tree, wall or stone-heap, 1 sometimes, 



* The late Mr. Newcome told the Editor of a flight in which both Hawk 

 and Hoopoe mounted out of sight, and so quickly that his informant, a Dutch 

 falconer, said it was as though they had been "pulled up to the sky by ropes." 



f Bishop Stanley says (Fam. Hist. B. ii. p. 67) that " one approached a vessel 

 in the middle of the Atlantic, and kept company with it for a good way, but did 

 not settle on board, which it probably would have done had it been tired." 



+ Pallas (Zoogr. Rosso- As. i. p. 434) mentions an extraordinary site for a 

 nest: — "Zarizyni in domo extra urbem sita, diu non habitata, intra ipsas 

 latrinas pullos educaverat Upupa, et licet tunc hotninum frequentia turbata, 

 postero anno tamen ad eundem nidum rediit. " He adds that he found another 

 nest, with some young, " qui foctidissimo ichore ex ano ejaculato se defende- 

 VOL. II. 3 I 



