444 THE HOOPOE 



were decidedly in evidence on the fourth day, and on the sixth the 

 quills that covered their pink ungainly bodies clearly showed the 

 russet-brown of the coming plumage, and the well-marked black and 

 white bars of the wings " (Zoologist, 1907, p. 284). Both parents are 

 assiduous in feeding the young, but make no attempt to remove their 

 excreta, which accumulate in the nest. Mr. Meade Waldo gives 

 some interesting details of the way in which the young are fed. As a 

 rule the old birds only carry one insect at a time, and quite at the tip 

 of their beaks. A centipede is carefully folded into about four loops. 

 In the Canaries and Marocco, where these observations were made, 

 the young hoopoes were fed largely on centipedes about two and 

 a half inches long, and crickets in the larval stage, as well as the 

 larvae of certain beetles. When first removed from the nest the 

 smell of the young hoopoe is most offensive, the nest being by this 

 time in a most filthy state ; but after being fed for a few days on 

 clean food, and kept in sanitary conditions, the offensive smell passes 

 away, and the bird becomes an attractive pet, but a somewhat 

 difficult one to keep. 



The food of the adult consists chiefly of insects. In temperate 

 climates these are dug out of turf or from heaps of dung by means of 

 the long curved bill. Various species of Scarabcei, Bembidia, and 

 Aphodii are extracted in this way. They are then knocked about for 

 a time ; the bird's head is then thrown back and the beak widely 

 opened, when the grub disappears into the mouth and is swallowed. 

 Worms are also treated in the same way, after being pulled out of the 

 ground and bruised. A hoopoe has been seen to kill a locust, but it 

 is doubtful whether it could have eaten it, unless possibly piecemeal. 

 In confinement it will eat many kinds of vegetable and fruit readily, 

 and probably derives some of the moisture required in this way, for 

 in a wild state it is apparently a non-drinking species. Indeed, 

 in many districts where hoopoes are common, no surface water is 

 available for drinking purposes for many miles, and if it were neces- 

 sary to the existence of the species, its journeys to and from its 



