142 MAY 



inhuman) qualities that have nothing whatever to do with 

 ornithology, or, may one say, as little as the Birds of 

 Aristophanes have to do with their namesakes ? And he 

 was one of the many writers who found drama in the 

 hoopoe. 



It is a quaint and lovely bird, for which I would beg the 

 closest protection. There is one reason, one and no 

 other at all, why the pairs do not regularly produce their 

 young in England. The crest is their undoing. They 

 advertise their presence, and are known to be rare. I 

 know of stuffed hoopoes and stuffed bittern in several 

 houses, so brazen are folk in maintaining an advertise 

 ment of their crimes. We have restored the bittern as a 

 breeding species. That genius in bird protection, Jim 

 Vincent, has himself seen over three score of nests, and 

 his tally increases considerably every year. Can we not 

 restore the hoopoe, which, indeed, has bred off and on 

 in England for a hundred years ? The bittern booms 

 on Hickling Broad to-day as freely as in the days of the 

 Monks of Crowland Abbey or Hereward the Wake, and 

 the ruff and reeve may follow his return, as we approach 

 an age when no one shall hurt or destroy or collect. 

 The hoopoe is not so alien that our old trees should not 

 house him as gladly as the owl and woodpecker. 



This spring of most abundant blossom brings up a 

 very vivid picture of the hoopoes that I saw some years 

 ago in the Mediterranean. Walking down from the olive 

 groves on the northern hills of Majorca to the plains of 

 the south, we saw, in lieu of the kites high in the heavens, 

 frequent hoopoe running about like domestic fowl under 

 the almonds. These almond groves do not, in my eyes, 

 come up to the splendour of the Teme valley or the 

 orchards of Evesham and Pershore seen from Bredon or 

 any neighbouring slope. The shire of Worcester excels 



