HOOPOES AT THE NESTING SEASON 191 



to wait outside with something in the beak until the 

 nestling was ready to receive it. At that time I had 

 no idea how many young birds were inside the nest. 

 The chink that led to it was too narrow to admit of the 

 insertion of one's hand. It was not until the young 

 bird emerged that I discovered that only one nestling 

 had been reared. 



While the parent was thus waiting outside with a 

 succulent caterpillar hanging from its bill, it used to 

 utter its call uk-uk-uk. Sometimes while one bird was 

 thus waiting the other would appear. Then the first 

 bird would transfer the quarry to its mate, and the 

 latter would either devour it or wait outside the nest 

 with the morsel. 



Most birds when they feed their young collect 

 several organisms in the beak between the visits to 

 the nest. Not so the hoopoe ; it brings but one thing 

 at a time, which it carries at the extreme tip of the bill. 

 The reasons for this departure from the usual practice 

 are obvious. The long bill of the hoopoe, like that of 

 the snipe, is a probe to penetrate the earth. During 

 this operation any food already in the bill would be 

 torn and damaged. Moreover, if the hoopoe were to 

 carry the food to the nest in the angle of the beak as 

 most birds do, it would be difficult to transfer this to 

 the long bill of the young bird. Hence it comes to 

 pass that hoopoes visit their nestlings a very great 

 number of times in the course of the day. 



When young hoopoes emerge from the egg they are 

 silent creatures, but before they are many days old 

 they begin to welcome with squeaks the arrival of the 



