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BIEDS OF EGYPT. 165 



Fam. UPUPIDJE. 



142. Upupa epops, Linn. Hoopoe. 



This bird is extremely plentiful throughout Egypt and 

 Nubia, frequenting the neighbourhood of villages, where it 

 may be daily seen perched upon a mud wall or bough, singing 

 its simple song of " Poop-poop-poop," or else strutting along 

 the ground with dignified gait, stopping here and there to 

 drive its beak into the earth after its insect food. It breeds 

 in March and April. The Arabic name is " Hud-hud." 



Head and a highly developed crest rufous, the end of each of 

 the longer crest-feathers black, some of them having a 

 white bar before the black. The rufous colour extends to 

 the centre of the back and over the shoulders, but is some- 

 what duller ; it also extends down the neck and over the 

 chest, where it acquires a pink hue ; primaries and taU 

 black, each distinctly barred with pure white ; a distinct white 

 bar across the rump ; remainder of the back and wings black 

 barred with buff or pure white ; abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts white, the flanks marked with dusky brown. Legs 

 brown ; beak black, paler at the base ; irides brown. 



Entire length 12 inches ; culmen 2*3 ; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 6; tarsus 9. 



Eig. Sharpe and Dresser, B. of Eur. part vii. 



Fam. ALCEDINID^. 



-V 143. Alcedo ispida, Linn. Common Kingfisher. 



Very abundant in the Delta, and occasionally met with 



