THE



Hvicultural /Hbagasmc,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. VI. —No. 63. All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1900.


WILD AND TAME HOOPOES.


By the Rev. Hubert D. Asteey.


Hoopoes seem to be tamer in a wild state in Eastern

countries than in Western. In Africa, India, and China, they

are, in certain parts, familiar and fearless birds, but those that

migrate for the spring and summer months to Europe prefer

more secluded meadow lands, and woods ; yet, if this most

lovely bird were suffered to remain at peace as an English

migrant, there is little doubt that in time we should look for

Hoopoes in our gardens in the spring, as we do for Cuckoos and

Nightingales, and the rest. Not a year goes by without specimens

of these birds being shot, so that it is impossible for them to

make a start in establishing themselves as regular visitors. In

the Scilly Isles every April brings with it three or four Hoopoes,

but passing whither, no one knows ; for they arrive only to

spend a week or two, and are gone again, yet their passage in the

vernal migration is an annual event.


In the water meadows and rich low-lying pastures cf

some parts of England, Hoopoes would undoubtedly find an

abundance of insect food, and would also be extremely useful in

digging out with their long slender bills, certain grubs destruc¬

tive to farming and gardening, which many birds with shorter

bills may be unable to reach beneath the surface of the earth.


Anyone who has voyaged up the Nile, has not left Cairo

far behind before the Hoopoes are evident to the most unnoticing

persons.


He is a bird of such striking appearance, with his wonder¬

ful coronet uplifted on his head, the long slender and slightly

curved bill, and the beautiful broad butterfly-like wings, banded

conspicuously with black and white.


Walking through the Egyptian villages, it is an ordinary

thing to see one or two Hoopoes running quickly over the dried

Nile mud, either on the edge of some canal or pool, or else prod-



