CERTHIADJS. 119 



in this group are the Humming-birds, the Sun-birds, the 

 the Hoopoes, Birds of Paradise, and the Honey-suckers : 

 none of these families however are represented among Bri- 

 tish birds, except the Hoopoes. 



THE HOOPOE. Upupa epops. In summer this bird mi- 

 grates as far north as Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and is 

 an occasional visitor to our island, where it is reported in 

 some instances to have bred. The Hoopoe delights, it is 

 said, in low, moist situations, in the neighbourhood of woods 

 and thickets, and in general selects for its nest the hollow 

 of some tree, perhaps more frequently of the willow, from 

 the circumstance that this tree grows in marshy situations 

 such as the Hoopoe delights to frequent. The nest is 

 formed of a few dried grass-stalks and feathers; and the 

 eggs, from four to seven, are of a pale-bluish or lavender- 

 grey, faintly speckled with brown, and of a coarse and pecu- 

 liar grain. 



CERTHIAD.E. CREEPERS. 



Intermediate between the Tenuirostral group of the In- 

 sessorial birds and the Scansorial Order, there occurs a 

 family, the Certhiada y including only three forms which are 

 British, namely, the Common Creeper, the Nuthatch, and 



