Wild ^ Tame Hoopoes 31 



There was such a flooring of sand and small stones 

 within that it was impossible by the light of one 

 candle, which cast shadows of every shape and form, 

 to see whether there were any eggs or young ones ; but 

 when I attempted to state my disbelief in their exist- 

 ence, I was met by a hurricane of denials. " Young 

 ones! young ones! " At first I thought that, with the 

 usual ignorance of the Egyptian (or Nubian) country- 

 man about birds, he was under the impression that 

 the undoubted adult bird was a young one, and conse- 

 quently I vehemently denied his assertion. But no ! 

 again he said " Young ones ! young ones ! " whilst the 

 other boys caught the refrain in chorus. And he was 

 right, for cutting a long and slender palm branch, 

 which he inserted into the inmost depths of the 

 fissure, just in front of the poor frightened hoopoe, he 

 gradually, and with much difficulty, scooped towards 

 the opening a poor wretched little bird of a few hours 

 old, which was rolled over and over on the rocky floor- 

 ing, until it was within reach of his arm. It seemed 

 futile to attempt to rear it by hand, and equally so to 

 push it back into the depths of the rocky nest ; so I 

 took it, and kept it alive for twenty-four hours, during 

 which time it fed well, and really collapsed, I believe, 

 from suffocation, having wriggled its poor small pink 

 body into a deep fold of the flannel in which it had 

 been wrapped, so that its wobbly head was bent under 

 its breast. It would have been a triumph to have 

 reared it. At that early age the fluff on the head was 

 largely developed in the form of a crest, but the bill 

 was quite short, as with any other young bird. 



