THE HOOPOES. 357 



short, with but little scrub or birch, it is very difficult to approach without being observed by them 

 from the high trees. I followed a flock of six for upwards of two hours, crawling fiat on my stomach, 

 negro fashion, before I obtained a chance of a shot, when I was so fortunate as to break the wing of a 

 male without otherwise injuring it. It was quickly captured by the blacks. They are omnivorous in 

 their food ; reptiles, birds, eggs, beetles, and all other insects, mandioca roots, ginguba or ground-nuts, 

 constitute their food in the wild state. In confinement I have fed this bird upon the same food, also 

 upon fresh fish, which it showed itself very fond of, as well as on entrails of fowls, &c. On letting it 

 loose in Loanda in a yard where there were several fowls with chickens, it immediately gulped down 

 its throat six of the latter, and finished its breakfast with several eggs ! The note or cry of the male 

 is like the hoarse blast of a horn, repeated short three times, and answered by the female in a lower 

 note. It is very loud, and can be heard at a considerable distance, particularly at night. They are 

 said to build their nests on the very highest Adansonias, in the hollow or cavity formed at the base 

 or junction of the branches with the trunk." 



The present species is of a very large size, measuring about forty inches in length, and about 

 nineteen inches in the wing. It is entirely black, with the exception of the primary quills, which are 

 white ; the bill and legs are black, but the bare skin on the neck and round the eye is bright red in 

 the male, but blue in the female. 



THE FIFTH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTKAL PICARIAN BIRDS, 

 THE HOOPOES (Upupidte). 



Different as these birds are in appearance and habits, ornithologists now agree that from their 

 structure they must be placed in close alliance with the Hornbills, with which they are more 

 particularly connected by the Wood Hoopoes. Instead of the ungainly figures and top-heavy- 

 looking casques of the Hornbills, the Hoopoes are remarkable for their graceful carriage and elegant 

 figure, in which the beautiful crest plays an important part. They are particularly at home in the 

 desert countries, where their sandy-coloured plumage is 110 doubt a great protection to them and a 

 story is told that the Hoopoe, if it sees a Hawk approaching, will throw itself flat on the ground, 

 and by twisting its wings round in front and remaining motionless, with its bill pointing upwards, 

 it will look like a piece of old rag, and thus escape detection. 



Not more than five species of Hoopoe are known, all inhabitants of the Old World, and the most 

 widely distributed is the Common Hoopoe (Upupa epops) of Europe, which visits England during the 

 spring and autumn migration, and at least one instance of its breeding in that country is known. 

 Mr. Howard Saunders states * : " In the year 1847 a pair of Hoopoes nested in a hole of an old 

 yew-tree in a shrubbery of an old-fashioned garden at Leatherhead, Surrey. The proprietor was very 

 anxious that the birds should not be disturbed, and a strict veto was placed upon any bird's-nesting in 

 the shrubbery a severe trial to our boyish propensities ; but we were afterwards rewarded by seeing 

 the parent birds with their young strutting about upon the lawn. As well as I remember, there were 

 five young ones besides the two old birds." The species is found all over central and southern Europe 

 in summer, being in some places very plentiful ; but it is a rare visitor to the northern parts, and has 

 disappeared from some countries, like Denmark, for instance, where the felling of the old and 

 hollow forest trees has deprived it of its accustomed breeding-places. In some places the bird is 

 disliked, and in Scandinavia, where it occurs only in the southern and central portions, it bears a 

 bad name among the peasantry, who suppose it to be a foreboder of war and hard times, and from 

 this circumstance its name of Harfugel or "army bird," is derived. The Chinese also have an 

 objection to them, branding them by the name of " Coffin-bird," as they often breed in the holes of 

 exposed Chinese coffins. On the other hand, according to Canon Tristram, in the Sahara the Arabs 

 have a superstitious veneration for the Hoopoe, and its magical properties enter largely into the arcana 

 of the Arab " hakeem." He says that great numbers of Hoopoes resort to the M'zab cities and 

 freq*ent oases in winter, where they strut about the courtyards and round the tents with the 

 familiarity of barn-door fowls. Mons. Favier says, that in Tangier the superstitious Jews and 

 Mahomedans both believe that the heart and feathers of the Hoopoe are charms against the 

 machinations of evil spirits. 



* Sharpe and Dresser, "Birds of Europe," Part VII., 1871. 

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