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month." It is also found in Portugal. Herr A. von Homeyer found it common on the Balearic 

 islands, particularly amongst the walls on Minorca, where it nests. The late Mr. W. T. H. 

 Chambers says that it is common in Tripoli. In Algeria, according to Loche, it is very common 

 during the spring and autumn migrations. Dr. Taczanowski also states concerning his acquaint- 

 ance with the Hoopoe in this country : — " I never saw one of these birds in the mountainous 

 districts: on the 10th of January we met with ten pairs in the oasis of Satscha;" and Mr. C. F. 

 Tyrwhitt Drake procured it in Tangier and Eastern Marocco, where, he says, it arrives about 

 February 20th, and is then to be found all over the country : about April it seems to go further 

 west to breed. Mr. Osbert Salvin, in his paper on the birds of the Eastern Atlas, writes : — 

 " Abundant about Djendeli when we were there. In every direction in the wooded hills of this 

 district the cry from which the bird takes its trivial name might be heard ; but common as it 

 was, we never obtained a single egg." Dr. Tristram's ' Great Sahara ' contains the following 

 note : — " Arab ' Thibeeh.' Great numbers of Hoopoes resort to the M'zab cities and those of 

 other oases in winter, where they strut about the courtyards and round the tents with the 

 familiarity of barn-door fowls. The natives have a superstitious veneration for this bird ; and its 

 magical properties enter largely into the arcana of the Arab 'hakeem.'" In Madeira it was 

 obtained by Heineken ; and Mr. Godman records it as occurring in the eastern and central groups 

 of the Azores. Dr. Carl Bolle states that it is common on the lower parts of the Canaries, a few 

 remaining over the winter. Most arrive, however, early in the spring, stay till September, and 

 then leave. He further remarks that, owing to the want of trees, they nest there in holes in the 

 stone walls and clefts of the rocks. 



Mr. Wright says that in Malta it is " very common, and a regular visitor in spring and 

 autumn. In both seasons it is one of our earliest arrivals. I have seen it as early as the middle 

 of February and the middle of August. It is said to breed in great numbers in Tripoli." Lord 

 Lilford tells us that he found it tolerably common in Sardinia as early as the beginning of 

 March ; and it arrives in Italy from the south in April, leaving again in September. Professor 

 Doderlein gives the following account of the bird in Italy and Sicily: — "The Hoopoe is a 

 migrant, and occurs plentifully near Modena. It commences to appear about the end of March 

 or the beginning of April, and is dispersed over the plains, as well as the woods and mountains ; 

 a good many stay to breed ; others keep on their way to the north. They return and depart again 

 for the south in September." And concerning the bird in Sicily, he continues: — "These pretty 

 little birds are accustomed to arrive in Sicily either one by one or in small flocks in the last days 

 of March or the first of April, and immediately they begin to fly about and to spread themselves 

 among the groves and wooded country and the mountains nearest the sea ; so that many individuals 

 on passage are killed at that time on the alpine heights of Monte Pellegrino. In May some 

 couples go into the interior of the island to breed in mountain groves ; but the majority pass on to 

 the continent. As soon as autumn commences they begin to return from their summer migration, 

 so that already, about the 18th or 20th of August, one sees in Sicily individuals of them flitting 

 about the groves and the olive-gardens by the edge of the sea, or flitting about searching after 

 insects round the heaps of manure accumulated about the rustic cottages. About the first days 

 of September, both the indigenous individuals as well as those who have arrived, all take their leave 

 for Africa, not one of them remaining to spend the winter in the island." Lord Lilford, however, 



3p 



