266 Certhiadce. 



a quarter from Alderton, at the point where Alderton, Sherston, 

 and Hullavington parishes meet, I passed an old crumbling 

 dungheap on the Foss way, and to my astonishment on that 

 dungheap (by-the-bye very like his native ones) sat a splendid 

 male Hoopoe, as calm and composed as possible, exactly as I 

 have seen them in Egypt, on every dungheap. I approached 

 close to him to admire him, and satisfy myself that this stranger 

 at Alderton (but to me familiar friend) was a real Hoopoe ; he 

 then gave one or two of his peculiar jerks, and rising with a 

 short undulating flight like a jay, rested on a hay-rick twenty 

 yards distant. As I approached the rick, he jerked himself 

 impatiently once or twice as before, and took flight for his dung- 

 heap, and again from that to the rick, but no further (like the 

 Vicar of Wakefield, who confined his migrations from the " Blue 

 bed to the Brown ") ; precisely as the bird appears everywhere 

 from November to March in "lower Egypt on the banks of the 

 Nile, only that, having in that "basest of kingdoms " an infinite 

 choice of dunghills, he merely removes himself and his wife (who 

 is always with him) from the brown to the black, and vice versd. 

 In the case of the bird in question, on my return from church 

 there he was as before. During the week I forgot his existence ; 

 and on the following Sunday, as I passed that way for the same 

 purpose, up jumped my friend from the back of the dunghill, 

 and settled on his hay -rick, and so I found him very becomingly 

 at rest on my return from service. The next day I sought him, 

 and found him at ivork upon his mixen, as busy as possible and 

 quite at home ; he seemed to imagine that he had gained a 

 parochial settlement under my ministration, not being aware 

 that the Foss, which divided the dunghill and the rick, is 

 invariably the division of parishes ; thus he lost the advantage 

 of being either in my care or that of the Yicar of Hullavington, 

 but I considered him entitled to my protection. I could not 

 hear, however, of his having been seen after that day, though I 

 inquired much after him.' 



Again in 1854, the Rev. F. Goddard reported to me the appear- 

 ance of another strange bird, supposed to be a Hoopoe, near the 



