Vireo — Upupa 1 7 5 



I have never seen the Vireo in England, so far as I know, 

 but very often when in Germany. It is a little smaller than 

 the Turtur. It gives forth a note like that of the large pipe 

 which plays the bass part of a song. This bird suspends 

 its nest upon a branch at the top of a tree, and fashions it in 

 rounded form, that it should not afford access to any man or 

 beast. 



Of the Upupa. 



eTToxjr, upupa, in English a howpe, in German eyn houp or 

 eyn widhopff. 



Aristotle. 



The Upupa builds its nest chiefly of human dung. 

 It changes its appearance in the summer season and in 

 winter, as very many other wild birds do. The Upupa 

 only of its kind builds not a nest, but entering the 

 trunks of trees lays eggs in cavities, without any 

 litter. 



Nearly all British writers name that bird Upupa, which 

 from the noise of its wings foreigners call Vannellus, though 

 in their own tongue the former call it Lapwing. Yet their 

 gross error may be easily refuted on the authority of Pliny, 

 who thus writes of the Upupa. 



The Upupa (he says) is a bird filthy otherwise as 

 to its food, but to be noticed for its folding crest, 

 which it contracts and then erects again along its 

 head. 



These are his very words. And yet our scholars may be 

 well excused this their mistake, for nowhere in the whole 

 of Britain is the Upupa to be found (so far as I know), 

 though in Germany it is most plentiful. The bird is of the 

 bigness of a Thrush, with wings barred here and there with 

 brown, and marked with black and white feathers ; the crest 

 extends from the part of the bill which joins the head to the 

 extremity of the occiput, along the length, this it contracts 



