54 On the Ornitholoyy of Wilts [^Certhiadoe]. 



place, in the following words: "I heard from a person residing 

 here" (at Alderton) "that a bird answering the description of a 

 Hoopoe with a high crest (a stranger, unknown to any one about 

 the place that saw it) was shot on the top of a chimney at Hibden 

 Farm in Luckington Parish, distant half-a-mile from Alderton, 

 and about three miles from the spot where I saw the Hoopoe in 

 1851. It was during the severe IVost and snow of January 1854 

 that this bird supposed to be a Hoopoe was killed ; but as he fell 

 into an old chimney, from which he has never been recovered, I 

 cannot be sure of his identity." So far from the pen of Mr. 

 F. Goddard : but even yet more interesting is the last account of 

 these birds breeding in Wiltshire, which I have received through 

 the same gentleman from his brother Mr. Septimus Goddard, who 

 writes as follows in answer to my enquiries on the point. " I 

 perfectly well recollect the circumstance of the young Hoopoes 

 being found in a bush near the brook on the farm now occupied 

 by Mr. Ackers (of Morden) in E-odbourn Cheney Parish : they 

 were four in number, nearly full grown ; colour that of woodcocks, 

 with very large top-knots, I am not quite certain what became of 

 them, but I rather think that they were taken back to the brook 

 again. The old birds laid again and sat nearly in the same place 

 the following season, but the eggs, four in number, were destroyed 

 by boys. I have frequently seen Hoopoes in Sussex near East- 

 bourne, where several have been shot on the estate of the Duke of 

 Devonshire." The last paragraph shows that Mr. S. Goddard is 

 not unacquainted with the bird, and cannot therefore have mistaken 

 any other for it. This is perhaps as full an account of English 

 Hoopoes as has fallen to the lot of any Ornithologist of this country 

 to meet with, and it is the more satisfactory that the narrator, 

 Mr".*F. Goddard, is not only an acute and accurate observer of 

 birds generally, but has become personally acquainted, and that 

 very intimately with the bird in question during bis travels in 



Egypt- 



" Nuthatch " {Sitta Enropcea). This active little bird is to be 

 found in our own woods all the year round : in colour it is dark 

 grey above, and orange buff beneath : the beak is strong, straight, 



