338 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



bills at an intruder. Although they very closely resemble their parents 

 in the colour of their plumage, the young are readily distinguished by 

 their short and nearly straight bills, which do not acquire their full length 

 until the following year. In the winter the Hoopoe is gregarious to a 

 great extent, a dozen or more birds often being seen in a very small area. 

 The head of the Hoopoe in spring plumage is ornamented with a fine 

 crest, the feathers of which are huffish chestnut broadly tipped with black, 

 which in the hindermpst feathers is emphasized by a narrow white sub- 

 terminal band ; the rest of the upper half of the bird is chestnut-buff, 

 darker and browner on the back and paler and. pinker on the breast. The 

 lower half of the bird is almost as pied as a Spotted Woodpecker : the 

 lower back, scapulars, and innermost secondaries are pale buff variegated 

 with black ; the primaries are black, with a broad subterminal white band 

 across them, and the secondaries are black, with four white broad trans- 

 verse bands* ; the rump is white, and the tail is black, with a broad white 

 transverse band almost in the centre of the middle feathers, and gradually 

 approaching the tip until on the outer feathers, especially on the outside 

 web, it nearly reaches it. The . belly and under tail-coverts are white, 

 streaked with dark brown on the flanks. Bill black, paler at the base of 

 the lower mandible ; legs, feet, and claws dark brown ; irides pale brown. 

 The female scarcely differs from the male, but the colours may be slightly 

 less pronounced. Autumn plumage difEers slightly from spring plumage j 

 the colours are not so rich, the underparts are paler, and the upper parts 

 slightly greyer. These differences slightly emphasized are the only cha- 

 racteristics of the young in first plumage, except that the beak is only 

 about half the length of that of the adult. 



* This is another instance in which there is a striking- difference in the pattern of the 

 colour of the secondaries and primaries. 



