494 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^r. 



The North-east African Hoopoe. — In a recent paper on 

 the birds collected by Dr. Muzioli in Tigre (Boll. Mus. Zool. 

 ed Anat. Comp. Tor. vol. xii. no. 287) 1 have made some 

 remarks about the Hoopoes of that region, four specimens 

 having been in the collection. While trying to identify these 

 birds, I was at variance with Mr. Salvin, who, in the ' Cata- 

 logue of Birds in the British Museum^ (vol. xvi. p. 4), had 

 united the North-east African bird with the European Upupa 

 epops. When examining the African birds collected by 

 Dr. Muzioli, 1 found them exactly like those collected in the 

 Bogos country by Antinori ( Antin. & Salvad. ' Viaggio Bogos/ 

 p. 58), and in Shoa by the same collector and by Dr. Ragazzi 

 (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) i. p. 105, vi. p. 220), and differing" 

 from the European Hoopoes in several respects, especially 

 in wanting, or having scarcely perceptible, the white sub- 

 apical spots on the feathers of the crest, and in the smaller 

 dimensions. The African Hoopoes I have attributed (//. cc.) 

 to U. senegalensis, Sw. 



Dr. Muzioli, having read my remarks on his specimens, 

 writes to me that these Hoopoes certainly belong to a species 

 different from U. epops, and his reason for this positive state- 

 ment is the quite peculiar call of the African birds, utterly 

 different from that of the European Hoopoes, with which 

 Dr. Muzioli is well acquainted : he adds that Hoopoes are 

 very common and extremely numerous in Tigre at every 

 season, so that it is quite evident that in North-east Africa 

 there is a resident form of Upupa. Dr. Muzioli has also 

 noticed that the African Hoopoes lack the disgusting smell 

 of musk which is so strong in the European birds. 



These divergences seem to me sufficient to establish the 

 specific distinction of the North-east African Hoopoe, which 

 I have hitherto called U. senegalensis. Whether this is its 

 proper name I cannot say quite positively, but I am inclined 

 to believe it. It would be interesting to ascertain how the 

 North-African form differs from the Indian U. indica. — 

 T. Salvadori, C.M.Z.S. 



