284 Wonders of the Bird World 



expedition they procured a specimen of a Little Bittern of 

 a kind hitherto unknown in Guiana, and the specimen when 

 brought to England, turned out to belong to the Argentine 

 Little Bittern {Ardetta mvo/ucris),a. species up to that time 

 believed to be only an inhabitant of Southern Brazil and 

 the Argentine Republic. As it was entirely new, not only 

 to Mr. Quelch, but also to the Fauna of British Guiana, 

 the wounded bird was retrieved, and having been despatched 

 in the orthodox manner by compressing its breast, was 

 laid out apparently lifeless in the skinning-room, for the 

 taxidermist to prepare. The bird had, however, only been 

 shamming death, for on the man entering the room to 

 prepare the specimen, the latter had disappeared from the 

 table on which it had deen deposited. A hunt for the 

 rara avis was for some time ineffectual, till at last it was 

 discovered standing in its normal attitude of concealment 

 against the leg of a table, close to which it had crept. 

 Apparently thinking that the table afforded the nearest 

 approach to a reed within its hail, it had tried to hide 

 itself by doing its best to resemble the table-leg as nearly 

 as it could. 



The Common Hoopoe {Upupa epops) of Europe makes 

 use of its protective plumage in a totally different way, but 

 with the same object in view, viz. to escape danger, when 

 flight will not serve its purpose. Although the Hoopoe 

 nests in Central Europe, it is not a common bird, and it is 

 much more plentiful in the Mediterranean countries and 

 sandy districts of Africa and Asia. For such a delicate and 

 natty-looking bird, it is remarkable that its nesting habits 

 are of the filthiest, and the name of " Stink-bird " and other 

 opprobrious epithets are bestowed on it in Germany on 

 account of the dirty condition in which it keeps its nest, 

 which, towards the end of the season, before the young 

 have flown, is often nothing but a seething mass of maggots. 

 When seen in the open, however, the Hoopoe is a most 



