108 Order II 



very short wings and tail. After having decreased 

 during the last century its numbers are now again in- 

 creasing, and it can hardly be called uncommon in 

 suitable situations, save in north Scotland and Ireland. 

 The Kingfisher may be seen on lakes, rivers and ponds, 

 but is specially partial to our smaller streams or ditches, 

 where it dashes past us like a flash of blue, uttering 

 a shrill reiterated cry, or sits patient but alert on some 

 jutting branch, ready to dart out at a moment's notice 

 on the minnows and other small fish, for which it 

 plunges into the water. It also eats small crustaceans 

 and insects. Six or more round glossy white eggs are 

 laid early in spring in an enlarged chamber at the end 

 of a tunnel bored into the perpendicular bank of 

 a stream or dry pit ; the entrance hole is circular and 

 placed out of reach of rats. The egg-chamber is lined 

 with vertebrae and small bones of fishes. 



Family UPUPID^I, or Hoopoes 



The Hoopoe (Upupa epops), as well as the King- 

 fisher, entered largely into the mythology of the 

 ancients. The former would probably breed regularly 

 with us in many places, if not shot in spring ; for it often 

 Occurs in south England, and has actually nested in 

 most of the counties bordering the Channel or near it. 

 But so curious-looking a fowl, with laterally compressed 

 erectile crest and long curved bill, and with plumage 

 prettily variegated with black, white, and fawn-colour, 

 is a great temptation to the gunner. Abroad it is 

 found in the Palsearctic region except the far north 

 and eastern Asia, while it has near allies in other 

 countries. The Hoopoe is a confiding bird, which flits 

 along with wavering flight or struts about the ground, 



