AN OMEN OF CALAMITY. 123 



pu ; others derive it from the name of the crest in French, 

 kouppe. The specific, or second name of this bird, is the 

 same as that by which it was known to the ancient Greeks. 

 In the play of The Birds/ by Aristophanes, the Epops figures 

 as a principal character. By an old work we learn that 

 the appearance of the Hoopoe was formerly looked upon by 

 the common people as the harbinger of some calamity. 

 Several specimens of the bird have been shot during the 

 past year or two in different localities. ' When obtained 

 young,' says Bechstein, ' it can be easily reared on flesh, 

 which, however, it cannot pick up well, because its tongue 

 is too short to turn the food into the throat, so that it is 

 obliged to throw it up into the air, and receive it with 

 open bill.' The same author, in his ' Cage Birds,' states 

 that l independently of its beauty, it is attractive by the 

 drollness of its actions, making a continual motion with its 

 head, and tapping the floor with its beak.' A corres- 

 pondent of this author gives an account of two young 

 Hoopoes which he took from a nest placed on the top of an 

 oak. They were exceedingly tame, climbed on his clothes, 

 until they reached his shoulders or head, and caressed him 

 very affectionately. They were fond of beetles and May- 

 bugs, which they first killed and then bent them into a 

 ball, which they threw into the air and caught lengthwise. 

 A living specimen, which was in the possession of Mr. 

 Bartlett, a bird-stuffer of Museum Street, London, is de- 

 scribed by Yarrell as very playful and vivacious. It was 

 fed upon raw meat chopped, and boiled egg, and hid 

 superfluous food, which it returned to when hungry. 

 When allured to come out of its cage, it took short flights 

 about the room ; but could not be considered a bird of 

 great power on the wing. Yet the Bishop of Norwich has 

 recorded that one of these birds approached a vessel in the 

 middle of the Atlantic, and kept company with it a good 

 way, but did not settle on board, which it probably would 

 have done had it been tired. 



A favourite locality for the Hoopoe on the Continent has 

 been thus described by a correspondent of the ' Magazine 

 of Natural History :' 



