THE HOOPOE i:?7 



however, though there is strong presumption that the bird has bred 

 on several occasions, there is no positive record of a nest having 

 been found. 1 



Other counties where nesting appears to have taken place are 

 Surrey (new I forking in 1*41. and also in 1847 at Letherhead) ; a in 

 Wiltshire, I:-M-\. and possibly also in Suffolk. 



No doulit it the immigrant birds which arrive in Kent and Sussex 

 in April and .May could be efficiently protected, this beautiful and 

 harmless species would not only become a regular breeder along our 

 southern coasts, but would in time also penetrate to the parks and 

 water-meadows of the midlands. Dr. Ticehurst 4 says that the 

 favourite landing-place of these birds is the long extent of coast-line 

 between Hythe and the Sussex border ; while the low ground in the 

 neighbourhood of Walmer and Deal, and thence eastward to Thanet, 

 is also much favoured by them. 



Although the great majority of our records are evidently birds on 

 spring migration, yet a fair proportion also occur during the return 

 movement in autumn, while from time to time stragglers have been 

 recorded during the winter months. 5 Out of sixty dated Kentish 

 records, those in spring outnumber the autumn ones by three to one, 

 according to Dr. N. F. Ticehurst There is hardly any part of the 

 British Isles, however remote, which has not been occasionally visited 

 by this erratic species, and we find notices of its occurrence in the 

 Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, Fair Island, and the Shetlands, as well 

 as on the rocky islets off the west coast of Ireland. The migratory 

 movements of the birds which visit us have already been treated of in 

 the " Classified Notes " (pp. 71-72 anted), and it is only necessary to add 

 that in Ireland, out of a hundred and seventeen records mentioned 

 by Mr. Ussher, seventy-six, or nearly two-thirds, occurred along the 

 south coast between Wexford and Cape Clear.' 



Although so widely distributed in Europe during the summer 



1 Ticehurst, Hirdtof Kent, p. 245. Hint* of Surrey, p. 16*. 



Bird* of WUU, p. 287. Ticehuret, Birds of Kent, p. 242. 



British ttirdt, iv. p. 888, etc. Bird* of Ireland, p. 112. 



