Hoopoe. 267 



same place, in the following words : ' I heard from a person resid- 

 ing here ' (at Alderton) ' that a bird answering the description of 

 a Hoopoe with a high crest (a stranger, unknown to anyone about 

 the place that saw it) was shot on the top of a chimney at 

 Hibden Farm in Luckington Parish, distant half-a-mile from 

 Alderton, and about three miles from the spot where I saw the 

 Hoopoe in 1851. It was during the severe frost and snow of 

 January, 1854, that this bird, supposed to be a Hoopoe, was 

 killed ; but as he fell into an old chimney, from which he has 

 never been recovered, I cannot be sure of his identity.' So far 

 from the pen of Canon Goddard ; but even yet more interesting 

 is the last account of these birds breeding in Wiltshire, which I 

 have received through the same gentleman from his brother 

 Mr. Septimus Goddard, who writes as follows in answer to my 

 inquiries on the point : ' I perfectly well recollect the circum- 

 stance of the young Hoopoes being found in a bush near the 

 brook on the farm now occupied by Mr. Ackers (of Morden), in 

 Rodbourn Cheney Parish ; they were four in number, nearly full 

 grown; colour that of woodcocks, with very large topknots. 

 I am not quite certain what became of them, but I rather think 

 that they were taken back to the brook again. The old birds 

 laid again and sat nearly in the same place the following season ; 

 but the eggs, four in number, were destroyed by boys. I have 

 frequently seen Hoopoes in Sussex near Eastbourne, where 

 several have been shot on the estate of the Duke of Devonshire/ 

 The last paragraph shows that Mr. S. Goddard is not un- 

 acquainted with the bird, and cannot therefore have mistaken 

 any other for it. This is perhaps as full an account of English 

 Hoopoes as has fallen to the lot of any ornithologist of this 

 country to meet with, and it is the more satisfactory that the 

 narrator, Canon Goddard, is not only an acute and accurate 

 observer of birds generally, but has become personally acquainted, 

 and that very intimately, with the bird in question during his 

 travels in Egypt. 



More recently a fine male was shot at Savernake by Mr. 

 Ponting in May, 1877, and Mr. Grant, of Devizes, records another 



