26 HOOPOE. 



note, 'tzyrr, tzyrr' a grating hissing sound, when alarmed 

 or angry. It seems to utter its call with much exertion. 



The nest, built in May, is placed in the hollow of a tree, 

 or a crevice of a wall, and is composed of dry stalks of grass, 

 leaves, and feathers. 



The eggs vary from four to seven in number, and are of 

 a uniform pale bluish grey, faintly speckled with brown. 



Incubation lasts sixteen days. After the young leave the 

 nest they assemble in the immediate vicinity, and are long 

 and sedulously attended to by their parents. 



Male; weight, about three ounces; length, from eleven inches 

 to one foot and half an inch; bill, black, pale reddish brown 

 at the base; iris, brown. The crest, the charming ornament 

 of this species, is composed of a double row of long feathers, 

 the fronts turning towards the side; they are of a rich buff 

 colour, the ends white, tipped with velvet black, except those 

 on the forehead, which are shorter, and without the white* 

 patch. Head on the sides, neck behind, and nape, pale buff, 

 with a tinge of grey; chin, throat, and breast, pale buff; back, 

 reddish buff, with three semicircular bands, bent downwards 

 one white between two black; the lower part white. 



The wings, when expanded, measure one foot seven or eight 

 inches .across; greater and lesser wing coverts, black, with a 

 cross*. &aV *o light buff; primaries, black, with a bar of pale 

 buff; t tj\e first feather is half the length of the second, the 

 'jaconet ta little *. Icvnger than the eighth, and a little shorter 

 "than tne seventh, the third and sixth equal, and but little 

 shorter than the fourth and fifth, which are also equal, and 

 the longest in the wing; secondaries and tertiaries, black, with 

 four or five narrow bars of white, some of the latter also 

 edged and tipped with pale buff, with an oblique stripe of 

 the same on the inner web of the last tertial feather. The 

 tail, of ten feathers, square at the tip, black, with a well- 

 defined semilunar white bar, tending on the sides towards the 

 end; upper tail coverts, white at the base, black at the ends; 

 under tail coverts, white. Legs, brown, feathered in front 

 above the knee, scaled below; toes, brown; claws, horn-colour 

 or black, slightly curved. 



The female is paler in colour. The crest is less than in 

 the male. Tertiaries without the buff. 



In the young, (which are at first covered with long grey 

 down, and the bill very short and straight,) the breast is 

 crossed with narrow dusky streaks. 



