90 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



specimen should be wanted, it could be obtained 

 equally well in autumn, when there would be no 

 question as to the breeding. The autumn arrivals 

 seem also to be most numerous, at least judging from 

 the specimens recorded during the last four or five 

 years, as Mr. Couch records one, a female, shot near 

 Eonseval, in Guernsey, on the 26th of September ; 

 and another also in Guernsey, shot on the 23rd of 

 September; I have one, obtained in Alderney in 

 August, though I have not the exact date ; and 

 another picked up in a lane in St. Martin's parish, 

 in Guernsey, on the 24th of August. During the 

 same time I only know of one spring occurrence ; 

 that was on April the 10th of this year (1878), when 

 two were seen, and one shot in Herm, as recorded 

 in the ' Star ' newspaper, for April the 13th ; this 

 one I saw soon afterwards at Mr. Jago's, the bird- 

 stuffer. These birds were probably paired, and 

 would therefore very likely have bred in Herm, had 

 one of them not been shot, and the other accordingly 

 driven to look for a mate elsewhere. It would 

 pay, as well as be interesting, as I remarked in a 

 note to the ' Star ' in reference to this occurrence of 

 the pair of Hoopoe's, to encourage these birds to 

 breed in the Islands whenever they shewed a dis- 

 position to do so, as, though rather a foul-feeder 

 and of unsavoury habits in its nest, and having no re- 

 spect for sanitary arrangements, the Hoopoe is never- 

 theless one of the most useful birds in the garden. 



