394 INSESSORES. UPUPA. HOOPOE. 



manent resident, being known to breed in the towns and 

 villages of Egypt. 



In this latter country, it has been observed, that the wild 

 or migrating birds of this species never associate with those 

 which are indigenous (and which inhabit the towns in nu- 

 merous flocks), but frequent, during their stay, remote and 

 solitary places. The Hoopoe affects low and moist situa- 

 tions, in the neighbourhood of woods or thickets, and is 

 mostly engaged upon the ground in hunting after its food, 



Food. viz. insects and worms.* Of the former, those of the coleop- 

 terous order are its chief favourites. It may sometimes be 

 seen hanging from the branches of trees, in search of the in- 

 sects that chiefly dwell on the under sides of the foliage. It 



Nest, &c. builds in the holes of decayed trees, but when these situa- 

 tions cannot be obtained, will make use of the crevices of 

 walls and rocks. The nest is formed of dry grass, lined 

 with feathers, or other soft materials ; and it lays four or five 

 eggs, of a greyish-white, spotted with hair-brown. The nest 

 becomes very fetid, from the accumulation of remains of the 

 insects with which it feeds its young, and probably also from 

 the droppings of the latter. 



PLATE 40 Fig. 2. Natural size. 



General Bill black, pale flesh-red towards the base. Irides umber- 

 descnp- brown. Crest composed of two rows of elongated fea- 



thers, orange-brown, passing in many specimens into 

 white adjoining the tip, which is black, and which it 

 can erect or depress at pleasure. Head, neck, and 

 breast, of a reddish-grey colour. Upper part of the 

 back of a very pale broccoli-brown, tinged with grey ; 

 the lower part black, with a mesial band of white, of 



* A specimen shot at Falloden in Northumberland, in October 1832 

 (and which, upon dissection, proved to be a male), had the stomach, which 

 is a membranous bag, rilled with the larvae of Tipulce and Phalance ; no 

 remains of perfect insects, nor any shards of beetles being visible. The 

 intestines were of considerable diameter, but short. 



