46 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



and. unfortunately, in almost every instance insuring its destruction. Although 

 the annual notices of its persecution, in our local and natural history' journals, 

 belie the stereotyped heading of " rara avis," no specimen is safe for an instant 

 on our inhospitable shores, and many an opportunit}' of examining the peculiar 

 habits, in a wild state, of this most interesting bird are lost to the naturalist 

 through the greed of collectors." (Birds of Norfolk, vol. i, p. 298). 



Although, as already stated, the Hoopoe seeks its food in the" open country, 

 haunting plains, fields, meadows, or roads, it prefers the neighbourhood of trees, 

 and more particularly affects open groves in the vicinit}' of pasture-lands ; nor, 

 unfortunatel}', does it at all object to the neighboui'hood of human dwellings, being 

 more shy of its own kind than of man. Most of the life of this bird is passed 

 upon the earth, where it struts and nods, almost in the manner of a minature 

 Crowned Pigeon, feeding entirely upon insects, their larvae and pupse, spiders, 

 probably centipedes, and worms. 



The flight of the Hoopoe is buoyant and undulating ; but, excepting during 

 migration, is not long sustained ; consisting chiefly of short excursions along a 

 roadway, or from one tree to another. Its call to its mate, from which it takes 

 its name, has been variously rendered as hoop, hoop, hoop, a soft bu-bu, pou, pou, 

 hoh-hoh-hoh ; but most Ornithologists seem to be satisfied with the first of these 

 versions ; the scolding note is a harsh rattling krr, sometimes described as a churr, and 

 the alarm note of the young, as with many species which nest in holes is a loud hiss. 



This species commences breeding operations about the middle of May, usually 

 selecting a hole in a decayed ash- or willow-tree as a site for the nest, but not 

 unfrequentl}- selecting a crevice in a rock, wall, or cave ; Lord Lilford mentions 

 having once found it on the ground beneath a large stone ; whilst Jerdon quotes 

 Pallas as having found the nest in the chest of a decaying corpse loosel^^ covered 

 with stones ; and Stevenson mentions that, according to the late Consul Swinhoe, 

 the Hoopoe is called the " Coffin-bird " in China from its habit of making its nest 

 in holes in exposed coffins. The nest is usually slight, but sometimes consists of 

 a good many twigs, straws, bents, rootlets, and feathers, and rarely no materials 

 of the usual kind ; but invariably a plastering of the most foul-smelling ordure, 

 upon which the eggs are deposited : nor does the bird ever remove its own drop- 

 pings or those of its young, so that the stench of a Hoopoe's nest becomes simply 

 intolerable, and the five or six eggs, which at first are clear greenish blue, become 

 soiled and 3-ellowish.* One brood only is reared in a season. The ^g'g (pi. viii, 

 fig. 268) is from Mr. A. B. Fam's collection. 



* I noted that the Wryneck's nesting-hole from which I obtained my young birds was in a similar filthy 

 condition, so that for hours the evil odour hung about my hands. — A.G.B. 



