UPUPIDM— HOOPOE. 



151 



HOOPOE, Yi- 



reported in most years. There is little or no doubt that it would 

 breed with us oc- 

 casionally, were it 

 not for the fact 

 that its very strik 

 ing exterior causes 

 it to be shot im- 

 mediately on its 

 first appearance. 

 It has been known 

 to breed in Doi- 

 set, Hants. Sussex, 

 Surrey, and else 

 where, but not 

 yet in- Essex, so 

 far as I am aware, 

 though the pair 

 shot by Mr. Par- 

 sons in 1839 would, in all probability, have bred had he not killed 

 them. 



Merrett says (i. 173) "in the New Forrest in Hampshire, and in Essexia, sed 

 raro invenitur." Albin figures (3. ii. 39) a hen which he says "was shot in the 

 garden of Mr. Starkey Mayos at Woodford, on Epping Forest, where they had 

 observed it for some time, and used all the means to take it they could ; but it 

 was so shy that it avoided all their traps which were laid for it, which the gentle- 

 man observing, ordered it to be shot." Buffon alludes to the occurrence of this 

 specimen. The Rev. R. Sheppard seems to have met with it occasionally at 

 Wrabness, as he notes its arrival there (see p. 42) on May 3rd in 182 1, on May 

 4th in 1822 and on Apr. r4th in 1825. "Two were killed near Harwich about 

 the middle of September [1832]" (Hoy— 12. vi. 150). Edward Doubleday, 

 in 1835, records (15) one " killed a few years since about a mile from the town," 

 and English includes it as an "occasional visitor " in his list of Epping Birds. 

 (43. i. 24). Mr. C. Walford (19. 47) records that one was shot at Wickham 

 Bishops and another at Braxted about 1838. Mr, Scruby of Ongar informs me 

 that about fifty years ago, a specimen, now in the possession of Mr. Muggleston 

 of Grays Farm, Ongar, was shot near that place and sent in a box, apparently 

 dead, to Mr. Leadbeater of Golden Square to be preserved. On his opening the 

 box, however, it flew round the room and was caught with difficulty. Since then 

 Mr. Scruby has preserved two, one shot at Little Laver, the other at Willingale- 

 Mr. Kerry has one shot at Harwich many years ago. On April 6th, 1839, Mr. 

 C. Parsons shot a male at North Shoebury, and on the loth a female. Although 

 he several times disturbed them they returned almost directly to the same spot, 

 and, as there was a hollow tree near, he thought it not unlikely they would have 

 bred (35), Henry Doubleday mentions (10) one shot by Sir Edward Smijth's 

 keeper in a wood near Epping about May 6th, 1840. In Kidd's Own Journat 

 (May 22, 1852, p. 335) it is recorded that Mr. C. Walford had recently shot a 



