250 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



and, I regret to say, the destruction, of several 

 of these beautiful birds being chronicled in 

 some one or other of the many periodicals 

 devoted to Natural History. If the thought- 

 less persons, whose first impulse on seeing an 

 uncommon bird, is to procure a gun and shoot 

 it, would only take as much pains to afford it 

 protection for a time, observe its habits, describe 

 its mode of nesting and manner of feeding its 

 young, they would do a much greater service to 

 ornithology by recording the result of their 

 observations, than by publishing the details of 

 a wanton destruction. 



That the Hoopoe will breed in this country, 

 if unmolested, is evidenced by the recorded 

 instances in which it has done so where suffi- 

 cient protection has been afforded it during the 

 nesting season. Montagu states, in his " Orni- 

 thological Dictionary," that a pair of Hoopoes 

 began a nest in Hampshire, and Dr. Latham 

 has described a young Hoopoe which was 

 brought to him in the month of June. A pair 

 frequented Gilbert White's garden at Selborne ; 



