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NATURAL HISTORY. 



The ordinary name of Hoopoe is derived from the note of the bird, and in most European 

 languages the latter suggests the vernacular names. Thus, in Bulgaria it is called Poo-poo, in Valentia 

 Put-Put, Bubbula, &c., in Italy, Poupa in Portugal, and so on. Mr. Swinhoe writes of the bird and 

 its note as follows : " I have already described the peculiar way in which the Hoopoe produces its 

 notes by puffing out the sides of its neck, and hammering on the ground at the production of each 



COMMOX HOOPOE. 



note, thereby exhausting the air at the end of the series of three, which makes up its song. Before it 

 repeats its call, it repeats the puffing of the neck with a slight gurgling noise. When it is able to 

 strike its bill, the sound is the correct hoo-hoo-hoo ; but when perched on a rope, and only jerking out 

 the song with nods of the head, the notes more resemble the syllables hoh-hoh-hok. Mr. Darwin makes 

 use of this last fact to show that some birds have instrumental means to produce their music. It is 

 not to this point, however, that I wish to call attention, but to the fact of the bird's puffing out the 

 sides of its neck. It is generally supposed that the song of a bird is produced by actions of the lower 

 larynx on air passing up the bronchial tubes onwards and outwards through the main tube, or trachea. 

 The trachea of the Hoopoe is not dilatable, but its oesophagus is ; and the puffing of the neck is 

 caused by the bulging of the oesophagus with swallowed air. There is no connection between the 



