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•75 



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THE HOOPOE. 



Upupa kpops, Linnaeus. 



Tlie Hoopoe has been noticed for more than two centuries as 

 a visitor to Oreat Britain, and in spring it arrives so frequently 

 on our southern and eastern coasts that if unmolested it would 

 soon become one of our regular breeding species. The appear- 

 ance of this tame and conspicuous bird is, however, the signal for 

 its persecution unto death, and some years ago the head-keeper at 

 Ashburnham Park, in Sussex, destroyed no fewer than seven in one 

 week, while I am afraid to say how many have been slain near a 

 certain spot in Kent where they alight after crossing the Channel. 

 In spite of their inhospitable reception a few pairs manage to 

 escape, and have bred from time to time in Devon, Dorset, Wilts, 

 Hants, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, and probably in some other counties. 

 The bird also visits us in autumn — ^sometimes in tolerable numbers on 

 the east coast after gales — and even in winter : while as a wanderer 

 it has been found in most of the counties of England, though sel- 

 dom in the north. In Scotland it has occurred irregularly as far 

 as Sutherland and Caithness ; also in the Orkneys, Shetlands, and 

 Outer Hebrides. To Ireland it is an almost annual visitor in small 

 numbers, principally to the southern portion. 



Accidentally the Hoopoe has been taken in the Faeroes, Spitsber- 

 gen, and the north of Norway and Russia ; while in the south of 



