140 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



Partridges, and they should always be given something, 

 such as earth or turf, to dig their bills into. Two of the 

 few species of Hoopoes known are found in India, and 

 both are common birds, and probably not distinguished 

 from each other by the casual observer. 



THE EUROPEAN HOOPOE (Upupa epops). This bird is 

 about a foot long, of which the bill measures more than 

 two inches. The wings and back are banded broadly 

 with black and white ; the tail is black with a white 

 crescent of which the convexity is towards the root ; the 

 belly is white with dark streaks and the rest of the 

 plumage sandy buff, warming into cinnamon on the crest, 

 which is tipped with black ; but on the longest feathers 

 there is a white space before the black tip. 



This bird is found in summer all across the temperate 

 parts of the Old World, migrating south in winter, at 

 which time it is found in and about Calcutta. It only 

 breeds with us in the Western Himalayas, in the months 

 of April and May, laying from four to seven eggs. This 

 is the Hoopoe par excellence, the subject of so many 

 legends ; for it has always attracted the attention of man 

 from its curious appearance and gestures. The Komans 

 knew it as Upupa, and the Greeks as Epops, so that its 

 scientific name is most happily classical a pleasing relief 

 to the barbarisms of most scientific nomenclature. It 

 visits England yearly, and has been known to breed 

 there when allowed to live long enough, which is not often, 

 as it is usually shot down on sight. It is a pity that 

 some wealthy naturalist does not import a few dozen 

 from the continent, and turn them loose, a proceeding 



