UPTTPA. 335 



the hole and taken her off the eggs, she pecking quite viciously all 

 the time, and occasionally giving utterance to a peculiar hissing 

 sound. The same hole is used year after year, even although all 

 the eggs are taken each time. I took eggs from the same hole for 

 four consecutive years. After the eggs were taken, the bird did 

 not lay again in the same hole that year, although she returned to 

 it again the next." 



In the Deccan, we learn from Captain Burgess that "it breeds 

 in the middle of April and May, building its nest in holes in the 

 mud walls which surround the towns and villages in the Deccan. 

 I transcribe a note, taken on 7th May, 1850, on the subject : 

 * To-day a man brought me word that about fifteen or twenty days 

 ago he found a pair of Hoopoes breeding in a hole in the wall of 

 a town ; the nest contained two young birds ; it was composed of 

 grass, hemp, and feathers. The same man tells me that he dis- 

 covered another pair building.' The headman of the town of 

 Sintee brought me an egg of the Hoopoe ; it w r as of a very pale- 

 blue or rather skim-milk colour. He found the nest in a hole in 

 a fort wall ; it was made soft with a few pieces of hemp, and con- 

 tained three eggs." 



Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks : " The Hoopoe breeds in 

 March in the Saharunpoor District ; the young are hatched 

 towards the end of the month. 



" The eggs are laid in holes of trees, or among the rafters o( 

 houses, and often in the nooks and crannies formed by twisted 

 suckers of the banian-tree (Ficus indica) ; if in the roof of a house, 

 the eggs are generally laid on a little layer of rubbish and thatching 

 grass, but in trees no attempt at lining the hole is made. 



" The usual number of eggs is five or six. They are of an 

 opaque greenish-blue colour, without spots ; in shape they are an 

 elongated oval ; the shell is thick and rather rough. 



"It is a very familiar bird and common in the district, almost 

 every house having a pair living in the verandah." 



In Oudh Mr. E.. M. Adam says that our bird " breeds during 

 February, March, and April ; they build in holes in buildings and 

 in the trunks of trees. The eggs, in one case, were laid in a 

 hollow surface which was carelessly lined with human hair. The 

 first nest I saw was on the 26th March. It was built in a hole 

 in the wall of the Baraich Court-house, about 15 feet from the 

 ground, and contained several well-fledged young birds. Although 

 crowds of natives were constantly thronging in the immediate 

 vicinity of the nest, the birds kept flying backwards and forwards 

 feeding their young. 



" Another nest was built in a hole in the mud gable-end of an 

 inhabited house, about 5 feet from the ground. The bird was 

 sitting on six eggs, and when I put my hand into the opening it 

 merely receded, showing no inclination to defend its eggs or to 

 make a noise. 



" The third nest I found was in the trunk of a nasoot or nausuk 

 tree (Eryflirina indica), about 5J feet from the ground. 



