60 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Adult Male. General colour above light brown, the scapulars 

 tipped with buffy-white and crossed with a band of buff, which 

 is broadly edged with black ; rump white ; primaries black, 

 with a broad band of white, in the form of a spot on the inner 

 web of the first primary, and again on the eighth, ninth, and 

 tenth, where the white bar takes the form of a transverse spot ; 

 the external aspect of the wing barred with black and white ; 

 head and neck pale vinous-rufous, including the crest, which 

 is a little darker ; the crest-feathers tipped with black, before 

 which is a sub-terminal bar, before which, again, is a bar of 

 white, not defined on its junction with the rufous of the rest of 

 the feather ; throat and breast also vinous-rufous, the abdomen 

 very pale buff; flank-feathers streaked with blackish along 

 their inner webs ; under tail-coverts white ; tail black, with a 

 median white bar, which crosses the other feathers diagonally, 

 so as to approach the tip on the outermost pair. Bill blackish, 

 flesh-coloured at the base of both mandibles ; feet black ; iris 

 brown. Total length, 12 inches; oilmen, 2*2 j wing, 57 ; tail, 

 4-0 ; tarsus, o'S. 



Adult Female Similar to the male. 



Young. Like the adults, but a little duller and browner in 

 colour. 



Range in Great Britain The Hoopoe may be considered a 

 regular spring migrant, and it has occurred in nearly every 

 part of the United Kingdom, including the Orkney and Shet- 

 land Isles, as well as the outer Hebrides. If the bird we 

 not so conspicuous an object and so tame, it is almost certaii 

 that it would nest regularly in England, and, notwithstanding 

 the fact that a Hoopoe is almost sure to be shot by way of 

 welcome in this country, there is no doubt that it has bred in 

 many of the southern counties of England. 



Range outside the British Islands. Generally distributed through- 

 out Southern Europe, and nesting in the Mediterranean coun- 

 tries, and in Central Europe as far north as Denmark and 

 Southern Sweden. It wanders even to the Faeroes and Spits- 

 bergen, and the North of Russia and Norway, but does not 

 breed in these high latitudes. Its eastern range extends through- 

 out Central Asia to China and Japan. It arrives in the south 

 of Europe in the middle of February, and Colonel Irby notes 



