THE HOOPOE 
O garden is worthy of the name if it possesses 
not a lawn of emerald grass, soft as velvet ; 
likewise, no lawn in India is complete unless 
it be ornamented by one or two hoopoes. 
Delightful birds, these, and as unique as delightful. 
There are no birds like unto them. Theirs is a profes- 
sion of which they enjoy a monopoly. They are the 
only birds which habitually dig into the springy turf for 
their insect food. Snipe, sandpipers, and innumerable 
other birds probe the soft mud of river-bank, marsh, or 
jh for their prey ; the hoopoe alone is able to force its 
long beak deep into dry soil. The bill of the ordinary 
long-billed bird is soft and pliant ; that of the hoopoe is 
hard and stiff. 
The hoopoe, then, as regards its manner of obtaining 
food, is a kind of dry-land snipe. It is, of course, in no 
way related to the snipe; the resemblance of the beak 
in the two species is but the result of similarity of habit. 
The snipe wades in water, so has long legs; the legs of 
the hoopoe are very short, so short that the bird has to 
walk very primly in order to keep its tail from touching 
the ground. 
Hoopoes are exceedingly numerous in India, It is 
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