On Hoopoes and Cuckoos. 237


winter and spring it must not only be shut up but kept warm.

It is a delicate species and must be treated accordingly.


Another difficulty, mentioned by Mr. Meade- Waldo (p.

193), is to keep the bill of the Hoopoe in good order. I have

never had a case of the bill splitting, and consider that such a

calamity need not, nay, should not, occur. I think it is the

result, perhaps, of too much warmth without due provision being

made for the moistening of the bill, aggravated it may be by the

heated condition of the system from too good living. Any way,

it is preventible, and that without special difficulty or trouble. A

depth of damp sand is sometimes recommended, and this is right

as far as it goes, and may be helpful, or even necessary in some

places. During the winter, when the bird cannot probe in the

garden, plenty of sand or something soft must be supplied ; but

I never myself started a damp prodding-ground in my birdroom.

Presumably the bread-and-milk and other moist and cooling

foods were sufficient, for I never had any bill- split ting. But a

few of my older Hoopoes, only two or three as far as I can

remember, did suffer from their bills getting out of order in

another way. In a dry summer, the ground in the garden

becomes hard ; and the two mandibles of the Hoopoe — it is

always at work prodding away — became separated at the tips,

the one from the other, the closed mandibles did not touch one

another throughout their whole length. The affected birds did

not seem much or any the worse, and the defect, although un-

sightly, did not seem to cause difficulty in picking up food. This

state of the bill was certainly caused by hard ground ; exactly the

same thing happened to the mandibles of one of two Woodcocks

I had many years ago, and I think also to those of a Snipe. An

endeavour should be made, therefore, at all times and in all

seasons, to provide suitable prodding-ground for the Hoopoe. I

once knew of a captive Woodcock whose worms were placed in

a thick bed of damp moss. It is possible that moss, or even

moss litter, might prove of use ; I have never tried either myself.


I gather that Mr. Meade- Waldo has not himself kept this

species, or he would hardly recommend just the food that he

does (p. 193).


First, a word as to ants' eggs, mentioned by him and by



