HOOPOE — EOLLER. 115 



Mr. Willughby ; but like the Biabolus marinns, never appear- 

 ing or being heard (as the vulgar will have it) till immediately 

 before some approaching calamity/ [Natural History of 

 Oarfordshire, ch. vii. § lo.) Several instances of the Hoopoe 

 breeding in England are upon record, and, if unmolested, 

 there is little doubt but that some individuals would do so 

 annually. It is interesting to find Plot stating so plainly 

 that they bred with us in his day, although, as will be seen, 

 he was mistaken in considering it a resident species. Near 

 Eynsham a Hoopoe, which passed into Dr. Kirtland^s collec- 

 tion, was shot in 1840 {Zoologist, p. 2598), and on the 25th 

 September in the following year, as recorded by Mr. T. 

 Goatley, one, which had been seen in the vicinity of Great 

 RoUright for three or four days, was flushed from a wet 

 furrow m a wheat stubble, and shot in an adjacent field. 

 [Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii.) The 

 remains of a fifth, which was picked up in a partly decomposed 

 state on the railway near Heyford, about 1850, came into my 

 possession many years after, and Mr. A. H. Cocks has a note, 

 dated 3rd December, 1878, of seeing a Hoopoe at Smith's, the 

 bird-stuffer, in St. Ebbe's, which he was informed was killed at 

 Headington Quarries in the previous summer {in lit.). Others 

 have been procured at Claydon in 1 864, at Eynsham about 1 866 

 or 1867 (G. Aruatt), and at Croj^redy Lawn, the last named 

 being shot in a turnip field (C. M. Prior). In more recent 

 years, a Hoopoe was seen by a competent observer near 

 Elsfield on the 26th April, 1886 (A. H. Macpherson, MS.\ 

 and lastly a female, a very fine example, was shot at Water- 

 perry on the 7th May, 1888, 



THE HOLLER. 1 i 



Coracias garruhis. 

 The Holler, which is a rare visitor to this country, has 

 occurred in Oxon on one occasion only, namely, at Balscot, on 

 the 29th May, 1869. 



I 2 



