24 



HOOPOE. 



COMMON HOOPOE. 



Upupa Epops, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



l7fmpa\ Hoopoe, (Latin.) Epops A Hoopoe, (Greek.) 



THE elegant Hoopoe is a native of North Africa, from 

 Egypt to Gibraltar, Asia Minor, and the south of Europe; 

 it goes northwards in summer as far as Denmark, Sweden, 

 Tartary, Russia, and Lapland. In Germany, France, Italy, 

 /Holland, and Spain, it occurs in small flocks; also, I believe, 

 in Madeira. 



In Yorkshire, one of these birds was shot at Euckton, in 

 the East-Riding, in May, 1851; and several others in other 

 parts previously one of them taken while alighting on a boat 

 in Bridlington Bay. Another at Bedale wood, near Cowling 

 Hall; two near Doncaster; and another seen in 1836, in Sir 

 William Cooke's wood; one at Armthorpe; one at Pontefract; 

 one at Eccup, a young bird, by the Hon. Edwin Lascelles, 

 October 8th., 1830; one at Low Moor, near Bradford; one 

 at Skircoat Moor, near Halifax, September 3rd., 1849; one, a 

 female, at Ecclesfield, near Bradford, April 9th., 1841; one 

 at Coatham, near Redcar; and one near Scarborough. 



The figure before us is coloured from a specimen in my 

 own collection, which was shot some years ago on the south- 

 western border of Dorsetshire. Not a year passes in which 

 one or more of these birds do not arrive in this country, 

 and the same remark applies to Ireland. Mr. Thompson gives 

 an accurate register of such in nine successive years, from 

 1833 to 1842, inclusive, with the exception of 1836, in which 

 none were known to have been observed. In Scotland too, 

 it sometimes occurs; in Sutherlandshire rarely: one was caught 

 near Duff House, Banff, in September, 1832; also in the 

 Orkney Islands. 



Occasionally it has even been known to breed here, and 

 doubtless would oftener do so, were it not incontinently pur- 



