34 HOOPOES. 



XL 



IT will not be without impatience that I shall 

 wait for your thoughts with regard to the/a/co .- as 

 to its weight, "breadth, &c., I wish I had set them 

 down at the time ; but to the best of my remem- 

 brance, it weighed two pounds and eight ounces, 

 and measured, from wing to wing, thirty-eight 

 inches. Its cere and feet were yellow, and the 

 circle of its eyelids a bright yellow. As it had 

 been killed some days, and the eyes were sunk, 

 I could make no good observation on the colour of 

 the pupils and the irides. 



The most unusual birds I ever observed in these 

 parts were a pair of hoopoes, (upupa,) which 

 came several years ago in the summer, and fre- 

 quented an ornamented piece of ground, which 

 joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used 

 to march about in a stately manner, feeding in 

 the walks, many times in the day: and seemed 

 disposed to breed in my outlet ; but were frighted 

 and persecuted by idle boys, who never lei them be 

 at rest l . 



1 Specimens have been killed at different times in this 

 country, and instances are recorded of their having even 

 bred ; the species, however, can only be placed among our 

 occasional visitants. The specimen from which the figure 

 in Mr. Selby's elegant Illustrations of British Ornithology 

 was drawn, was taken on the coast near Bamborough Castle, 

 Northumberland. Colonel Montague mentions a pair that 

 began a nest in Hampshire, and Dr. Latham records a 

 young hoopoe shot in the month of June. The species is 

 abundantly met with in the south of Europe ; it also occurs 

 in Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. In the 



