THE HOOPOES. 6 1 



the earliest arrivals near Gibraltar as the i6th to the i8th of 

 that month, though the greater number pass northward in 

 March, returning during August, September, and October. 

 The winter home of the Hoopoe is in Senegambia and North 

 eastern Africa, the Central Asian individuals doubtless winter- 

 ing in North-western India, and the Chinese and Japanese 

 birds in Southern China. 



Habits It is a pity that the indiscriminate slaughter of this 

 pretty bird deprives us in this country of an opportunity of 

 seeing the Hoopoe in a state of nature, for it is admitted by 

 everyone who has had that privilege as being a very graceful 

 bird in its movements and ways, particularly, says Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, " at the time of courtship, when the bird struts 

 about with crest erect, uttering a note resembling a soft bu-bu 

 (whence the Spanish term Abubilld]^ or hoop-hoop^ to which, 

 and not to its crest, it owes its English and French names." 



The nest is placed in the hollow of a tree, and in some 

 countries of Europe the bird has disappeared or become re- 

 duced in numbers, owing to the cutting down of old timber. 



To look at a Hoopoe, one could scarcely imagine a more 

 neat and cleanly-looking bird, and yet its nesting habits are 

 often disgusting. The material of which the nest is composed 

 is of the slightest, but it is surrounded by ordure of some kind, 

 which, according to Mr. Howard Saunders' experience in 

 Spain, "causes an intolerable stench, which is subsequently 

 increased by the droppings of the female and young." In 

 China, according to Mr. Swinhoe it is known by the name of 

 " Coffin-Bird," as it breeds in the holes of exposed Chinese 

 coffins, and Pallas relates his finding a nest in the chest of a 

 decaying corpse. 



The Hoopoe feeds on insects and worms, boring in the 

 ground with its long bill for the former. It devours a large 

 number of worms and insects of various kinds, beetles, cater- 

 pillars, grasshoppers, &c. It is said that the bird always 

 throws up its food into the air and catches it in its bill, before 

 swallowing it, a very Hornbill-like habit, and one which has a 

 bearing on the relationship of the Hoopoes to this Family. 



For my own part, I have no doubt as to the relationship 

 of the Hoopoes with the Hornbills, and another remarkable 



