HOOPOES. 57 



THE HOOPOES. 

 Family U 



The beautiful birds known from their cry as hoopoes form, with the wood- 

 hoopoes, a group having no very close allies, and are regarded, like each of the last 

 iVw preceding families, as constituting a suborder by themselves. They have, 

 indeed, been considered as nearly related to the perching birds, from which they 

 are, however, sharply distinguished by the bridged structure of the palate, 

 as well as by the presence of two deep notches in the hinder border of the 

 breast-bone. They are further characterised by a perforation in the fore-part of 

 the latter bone, which allows the two inetacoracoid bones to meet in the middle 

 line ; a similar condition obtaining in the bee-eaters and hornbills. Indeed, it 

 is the latter birds, which at first sight appear so different, that seem to be the 

 nearest allies to the hoopoes, both these groups displaying very remarkable nesting- 

 habits, and also having certain structural features in common. The whole of the 

 members of the present family are included in the single genus Upupa, and are 

 desert-loving birds, inhabiting suitable localities in Africa, the greater part of Asia, 

 and temperate Europe, and specially distinguished by the sandy hue of their 

 plumage, which is devoid of any metallic gloss, the squared form of the tail, and 

 the open and rounded nostrils. They are represented by six species, three of 

 which are exclusively confined to Africa and Madagascar ; while the Indian 

 hoopoe (U. indica) ranges from the country from which it takes its name to 

 Burma, and on the western limits of its range apparently interbreeds with the 

 common European species. 



The latter species (U. epops), which is the one represented in our coloured 

 Plate, has its plumage of a general sandy brown colour, wdth black-and-white 

 bands. Conspicuous from the crest of erectile plumes adorning the head, the 

 hoopoe has the secondary quills black with four white bars of equal width ; 

 the rump is white ; the primary quills are black with a broad band of white ; the 

 lesser wing-coverts being of the same sandy hue as the back, while the median 

 series is black tipped with buff. The dark vinous crest-feathers are tipped with 

 black, bordered inferiorly by a line of white ; the flanks have blackish streaks , 

 the under tail-coverts are white ; the tail is black with a broad white band, some- 

 what bent downwards on the outer feathers; while the beak is black, with a 

 flesh-coloured base, and the feet are likewise black. In total length the bird 

 measures about a foot. The range of this species apparently extends from 

 Southern Sweden and Central and Southern Europe generally, to Japan. Its 

 winter home appears to be in Senegambia, South-Eastern Africa, and the peninsula 

 of India. In the latter area it probably intergrades with the resident species, 

 which has no white subterminal bar on the crest-feathers, although many inter- 

 mediate specimens are met with, showing an indication of a more or less perfect 

 white bar, and are doubtless the result of crossing. The sexes of the common 

 hoopoe are alike in colour, and the young birds resemble the adults but have 

 a more fluffy plumage. Breeding as a rule in hollow trees, the hoopoe is now 

 become rare in those parts of the Continent where the country has been denuded 



