HOOPOE. 335 



parts of South Africa^ by a very distinct species, Upupa africana,, easily 

 distinguished by the absence of the white bar across the primaries *. 



As might be expected in a species having such an extensive breeding- 

 range, numerous climatic races occur. The typical race varies in length 

 of wing from 6'0 to 5*3 inch, and ranges throughout the Palsearctic Region, 

 including the Himalayas and South China, but excluding Algeria, where 

 intermediate forms occur varying in length of wing from 5'7 to 5'linch. 

 The Indian race, Upupa nigripennis, is the smallest, the wing varying from 

 5"3 to 4'7 inch. This race is further distinguished by being somewhat 

 richer in colour, and would constitute a good subspecies were it not that 

 the distribution of the intermediate forms points to a climatic race rather 

 than to a geographical variety. Examples from the Burma peninsula and 

 Hainan, U. longirostris, agree in colour with the Indian form, but are 

 intermediate in size between it and the typical form, varying in length of 

 wing from 5"6 to 4'9inch, and have on an average a slightly longer bill, 

 which varies in length from 2'7 to 2'2inch, the typical and Indian races 

 varying from 2'4 to l'6inch. The latter form appears to be to a certain 

 extent geographically distinct ; but it is only the extreme examples that 

 can be distinguished. A local race, U. marginata, which appears to have 

 become specifically distinct, is resident in Madagascar, and is intermediate 

 between the European and Asiatic races, combining the large dimensions 

 of the former with the rich coloration of the latter. It differs from the 

 European species in having a somewhat longer and broader bastard 

 primary without any white spot. It has a much narrower white bar 

 across both the wings and the tail, and in both cases this is placed con- 

 siderably nearer the base of the feathers. Though the winter range of 

 our bird extends to Madagascar, there does not seem to be^any evidence 

 that the two races interbreed. 



The Hoopoe is a migratory bird in Europe, and arrives in Spain, Greece, 

 and Asia Minor towards the end of March, and reaches its breeding- 

 grounds in Germany and other parts of Central Europe early in April. 

 Notwithstanding its early arrival, it does not, as is usually the case with 

 early spring migrants, remain late in autumn, but leaves again for the 

 south in August, and the last has usually disappeared before the end of 

 September. In the oases of the Great Desert, which appear to be the 

 winter-quarters of the Hoopoes that breed in the Algerian mountains, the 

 birds are very tame and familiar, many of them frequenting the towns, 

 where Canon Tristram says they strut about with little more concern than 

 barndoor fowls, entering the courtyards of the houses, or running amongst 

 the tents quite at ease and unmolested, for with the Arabs the Hoopoe is 

 a sacred bird. 



* I cannot admit that the evidence on which this species is said to range as far north 

 as West Africa is reliable (Shelley, Proo. Zool, Sec. 1881, p. 670). 



