Tin: Hoopoe. 



4S 



Fawilv—IIPIII'ID.-]-.. 



The Ho(jp()E. 



Upupa cpops, Linn. 



1 



IN Europe and Asia the Hoopoe occurs in summer as far to the north as about 

 56° lat., but stragglers have been met with even to within the Arctic Circle : 

 to the south it breeds in suitable places throughout Europe and the greater part 

 of Asia ; it winters in Madagascar, Abj-ssinia, Nubia, North Africa, and Senegal ; 

 it is resident in the Canaries, and occurs in Madeira and the Azores. To Great 

 Britain and Ireland the Hoopoe is a tolerably regular summer visitor, but 

 unhappily its striking appearance and its love for open countr\- render it a mark 

 for every gun, so that but few of those specimens which reach our shores ever 

 leave them again, much less have a chance of breeding here. Nevertheless the 

 Hoopoe has now and again been known to nest in many of the southern counties 

 of England, and has been met with in nearly ever)' count}', as well as in the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands. 



The male bird has a conspicuous crest of large cinnamon feathers tipped with 

 black on the crown, some of the feathers also with a subterminal white band ; * 

 upper parts cinnamon, paler, and barred with black and white on the lower back ; 

 rump white ; wings black, varied with white bands, excepting the inner secondaries 

 which are striped with buff; tail black, crossed b}' an arched white belt, the outer 

 extremities of which almost reach to the tips of the outermost feathers ; the fore- 

 parts below are of a rather more rosy cinnamon than on the upper parts ; the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts white : bill black, flesh-coloured at base of lower 

 mandible ; feet deep brown ; iris pale brown. The female is slighth" smaller and 

 the crest, wing and bill are decidedly shorter. The young is duller and has a 

 shorter bill. 



The opening words of Stevenson's chapter on the Hoopoe cannot be too -n-idely 

 circulated, and therefore I make no apology for repeating them here : — '* Of all 

 our rarer migrator}- visitants there is none whose appearance is more regularly 

 noted than the Hoopoe, its singular plumage striking the most indifferent obser\-er 



* This crest can be erected or depressed at pleasure : wheu at rest it is usually depressed, but when the 



bird alights on the earth or when it is excited the feathers are raised. 



