436 THE HOOPOE 



THE HOOPOE 

 [F. C. R JOURDAIN] 



As a summer visitor to our shores the records of the appearance 

 of this bird are of quite respectable antiquity, ranging back for over 

 two hundred and forty years. The earliest writer to record its appear- 

 ance was Merrett, who, in his Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicarum 

 (p. 173), mentioned that it had occurred in the New Forest and also in 

 Essex. From this time onward, as the number of observers has 

 increased, the notices of its occurrence have become more numerous, 

 and now it is known to be a fairly regular spring migrant, arriving on 

 our southern and south-eastern coasts in small numbers annually. 

 Unluckily, its conspicuous crest and the bold barring of the wings 

 are apt to attract the attention of the man with a gun, and in spite of 

 well-meant protection orders, only a very small proportion of our 

 visitors are allowed to settle down and rear their young in peace. 



There is, however, good evidence that it has bred in all the 

 counties bordering on the English Channel, as well as in East Anglia. 

 In Cornwall a brood of four was successfully reared out of a clutch of 

 five eggs near St. Columb in 1901 ; ! in Devon, a nest with four young 

 was taken in a wood in the parish of Tavistock some time prior to 

 1836 ; 2 it is said to have nested in pollarded willows by the river 

 Lenthay, on three or four occasions, in Dorset; 3 Borrer mentions two 

 instances of its breeding in Sussex, at Southwich near Shoreham, and 

 at Chichester, about 1835 ; 4 and I have reason to believe that it has 

 also nested at least twice quite recently in the same county; in 

 Hampshire, eggs were taken by Mr. Hart in 1886, while Dr. Giinther 

 states that young were reared in the New Forest in 1897 and 1898, 

 and the Rev. G. M. Hewett records nests in 1900 and 1902 ; in Ken 



1 J. Clark, Zoologist, 1907, p. 284. ' Birds of Devon, p. 119. 



1 Our Summer Migrants, p. 251. * Birds of Sussex, p. 108. 



