HOOPOE. 
for, at all other times, it is very cleanly. The 
female usually lays four or hve greyish eggs, 
somewhat larger than those of the partridge. 
The cry of the male, who is accused of not 
feeding the young, is "Bou, bou, bou !" which 
may be heard at a great distance. Those who 
have listened attentively to the Hoopoe, pretend 
to have noticed different infle6tions and accents, 
corresponding to it's different circumstances : 
sometimes a hollow moaning, which foreboded 
rain; sometimes a shriller cry, indicating a fox 
in sight, &c. It is said never to drink at springs 
or brooks ; and, for this reason, to be seldom 
caught in snares. When tamed, however, it 
plunges it's bill with a brisk motion into the 
water, but does not repeatedly lift up it's head,, 
like many other birds. It has, probably, BufFon 
r€ma,rks, a power of raising the water into 
it's gullet by a kind of su6lion. The brisk 
motion of the bill he assigns to natural habits 
in it's mild state, as the a 61 by which it catcher 
inseiSls, crops buds, bores into the earth for 
worms-, and perhaps for humidity too, as well 
as searches the nests of ants for the eggs. 
But, though the Hoopoe be with great diffi- 
cully 
