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THE HOOPOE. 



(Upupa epops.) 



THE Hoopoe is from base of bill 10 inches long. It is a 

 fair bird with beautiful variegated plumage. Head, upper 

 back, and breast pale rust-red ; mantle, shining black, with 

 white ornamentation ; tail also black, with a crescent- 

 shaped white band curving inwards towards the rump. 

 The head is adorned with a bunch of feathers which the 

 bird can erect or depress at pleasure. The feathers of 

 this are light coloured, with black tips, but the tips of 

 the longest feathers are black and white. Beak, long 

 and slightly curved, thin, and adapted for picking. It 

 lays four to seven eggs, greenish olive, or clay colour, 

 but always of uniform colour, which it places on the 

 mould in the holes of trees. The Hoopoe is the only 

 bird that fouls its nest, and brings up its young in dirt 

 and filth. On this account both mother and young have 

 an evil odour, as some of the bird's names indicate. 



This national Hungarian bird is a migrant, and dwells 

 chiefly on the borders of woods in the low bushes, and 

 in the neighbourhood of pastures, where it is never 

 weary of examining the droppings of the cows, from 

 which it obtains beetles and maggots. It also catches 

 gnats on the wing, and the leaping grasshoppers. It is 

 a noisy bird, and its cry " Hup up" from which its 

 name is derived is heard sounding vigorously from 

 the branches. It is one of our most useful, and most 

 brilliantly coloured birds, and should be protected. 



For over two hundred years the Hoopoe has been 

 recorded as a visitor to Great Britain, a more or less fre- 



