HOOPOE. 381 



perfectly uncovered and open ; wings ample, 

 fourth and fifth quill longest, others gradu- 

 ating ; tarsi and feet short, claws strong, 

 grooved beneath, that of the hallux nearly 

 straight. 



Types. U. epops, Capensis. 



Note. Europe, Africa. Head crested. 



HOOPOE, UPUPA EPOPS, Will. Linn, fyc 



Hoopoe of British authors. This beautifully 

 marked and elegant bird strays occasionally to 

 the British isles, and scarcely a year passes 

 without some specimens being obtained, some- 

 times in the south, and at others almost in the 

 extreme north. Those of late years have gene- 

 rally been recorded in the periodicals of the day, 

 and the notices are sufficiently authentic and 

 numerous for us to consider it as a bird not so 

 uncommonly met with, as many others which 

 have acquired a title to a place in our fauna. A 

 very few instances are also on record, of its having 

 bred occasionally in Britain, but these have been, 

 perhaps, occasioned by circumstances over which 

 the bird had no control. On the Continent, it is 

 a regular and periodical visitant in summer, and 

 breeds particularly in the southern countries, re- 

 tiring afterwards to Asia and Northern Africa. It 

 is said to frequent districts rather low and moist, 

 feeding chiefly upon insects. Mr Greenhow has 

 remarked it on the Bordeaux side of the Garonne, 



