UPUPA NIGRIPENNIS. 



(THE SOUTH-INDIAN HOOPOE.) 



Upupa nigripennis, Gould, MS. ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 725 (1856) ; 

 Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 392 (1862); Holdsworth, P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 435 ; Hume, Nests 

 and Eggs, p. 163 (1873); Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 286; Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 458. 



Upupa senegalensis, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 46 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 

 p. 119 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 174. 



Upupa ceylonensis, Heidi. Handb. Scansorise, p. 320. no. 753, tab. 595. fig. 4036 (1851). 



Upupa indica, Sharpe & Dresser, B. of Europe, pt. vii. U. epops, p. 6 (1871). 



Hudhud, Hind. ; Kondeh pitta, lit. " Crested Bird," also Kukudeu ijuwa, Telugu. 



Chaval kuruvi, lit. " Cock Bird," Tamils in Ceylon. 



Adult male. Length 10-8 to 11-75 inches : wing 5T to 5-5 ; tail 3-5 to 4-0 ; tarsus 0-85 to 09 ; middle toe and claw 

 0-85 to 0-95 ; bill from gape (straight) 2-] to 2-56. 



/•' male. Length 10-25 to 10-8 inches ; wing 4-7 to 5-0 ; bill to gape 2-0 to 2-2. 



Iris brown ; bill black, pale brown at the base of upper mandible, fleshy red at the base of lower ; legs and feet pale 

 slate-blue or plumbeous, in some tinged with brown. 



General hue of head, crest, hind node, and throat fine cinnamon-brown, becoming smoky brownish on the interscapular 

 region, and pale vinaceous on the fore neck and chest; crest-feathers, which are about 2 inches in length, with a 

 terminal black bar and occasionally a pale adjacent patch ; back, upper tail-coverts, tail, and wings black ; the 

 lower part of back crossed with white, and the rump entirely so ; an angular bar across the centre of the tail, a 

 broad band across the terminal portion of primaries (the first excepted), three on the secondaries, and another on 

 the median coverts and scapulars white ; 1st primary sometimes with a white spot, at other times without ; tertials 

 with white edges, an oblique streak across the inner webs and another down the centre from the base, the light 

 parts often deeply tinged with bull; the point of the wing concolorous with the hind neck : beneath, from the 

 upper breast, white, dashed on the belly in some, and in others on the sides only, with blackish mesial streaks : 

 under wing pale cinnamon-red. 



Young, The nestling is covered at first with pure white down, which is quickly interspersed with feathers of the 

 normal colour, the crest showing at once. 



In Ceylonese examples of this Hoopoe, a great variety in the depth of coloration is met with ; this is particularly 

 noticeable on the head and hind neck ; again, scarcely any two specimens have the lower parts striated alike or 

 the tertials similarly marked ; the spot on the 1st primary is sometimes absent, and may perhaps be a character of 

 nonage. L have noticed that the largest individuals that I have met with are the palest in colour and always 

 have the white spot ou the 1st primary. It is the exception to find an example with the whitish or pallid bar 

 anterior to the black tips of the crest -feathers ; but notwithstanding it does exist, though it is not so white as in 

 examples from northern parts of India — 1 he race, U. indica, of the European bird; and it is in the form of a 

 marginal spot at each side of the shaft, the web next to which is of the same colour as the rest of the feather. 

 The length and shape of bill cannot be relied upon at all as a characteristic of this Hoopoe; some are tolerably 

 straight, others much curved ; some long, others short. 

 The North-Indian variety (Upupa indica of Hodgson), if it be considered distinct from the present, has more white 

 (and has it more constantly) at the edge of the black crest-bar ; Hodgson's type was collected in Nepal, and the 

 race it represents seems to me worthy of being considered intermediate between the present species and U. <pop>s. 

 Specimens from " North Bengal," in the British Museum, have the pale heads of the European bird ; but they are 

 longer in the bill than the generality of the latter, and the light patch anterior to the black tip is not so white; 

 two examples have the wings 5-6 and 5-1 inches, and the bill to gape 2-4 and 2-3 respectively. In U. epops the 

 bill is variable in length, but its pale plumage and white covert-bar make it very distinct from the North-Indian bird, 

 than which also it has a longer wing. 



