150 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
some root, overhanging perhaps a ditch, from which eleva- 
tion it would dart off with a straight steady flight, its little 
back gleaming the while like an emerald. One day one 
of a pair was shot at and wounded. It fell into the water, 
and immediately its mate—undeterred by the presence of 
three people—attacked it in the most savage manner, and 
struck it furiously a number of times with its beak. It 
seems to be a law of nature that the strong should kill the 
weak, sickly, and wounded, among animals. 
My specimens have much whiter throats than British 
ones.* 
39. Hoopor, Upupa epops, Linn.; U. major, Brehm. ; 
“ Hidhid.” 
Familiar denizen of the villages, the Hoopoe stalks about 
on every dung-hill, perches on the mud-walled houses, pries 
into the sakias,t and is seen on the fertile banks of the 
river. In the Delta, where they are everywhere common, 
I could have sometimes killed three at a shot; but like the 
Ziczac and many others, they become scarcer up the Nile. 
The gape in the young bird is quite as yellow as Gould 
makes it in the “Birds of Great Britain.” In Upper Egypt 
the Arab name is Hud Hud; in the Delta, and in the 
province of Faioum it is Hid Azd. In Algeria I found this 
bird to be a migrant, but in Egypt which is several hundred 
miles further south, it is a resident. 
* In the north of England a friend was fishing one day on the 
Cocker stream, when a Kingfisher settled on his rod. He was amazed 
and delighted at the mistake the bird had made, but of course it did 
not stay many seconds. The incident, though curious, is not unique. I 
have read of parallel cases two or three times. 
+ Sakias are wells, and a description of them may be found in every 
book on Egypt. 
