726 
CATALOGUE. 
garden. It feeds entirely on the ground, walking along with ease, 
and picking up various insects as it moves along. It breeds, I am 
informed by shikarees, in the hot weather, in holes of old walls and 
other buildings." — (Jerdon.) 
" In the upper portion of the Deccan this is a common bird, fre- 
quenting gardens and woody spots, and is very partial to sandy plots 
of ground, particularly outside the walls of villages. In such places 
the sand is perforated with the conical holes of the ant-lion ; and 
that this is the food sought for by the Hoopoe in these spots, I dis- 
covered on opening the gizzard of one, which was of a very soft 
texture, and contained one large grub and two or three ant-lions. It 
breeds in the middle of April and May, building its nest in holes in 
the mud walls which surround the towns and villages in the Deccan. 
I transcribe a note, taken on 7th May, 1850, on the subject : — ' To- 
day a man brought me word that about fifteen or twenty days ago he 
found a pair of Hoopoes breeding in a hole in the walls of a town ; 
the nest contained two young birds : it was composed of grass, hemp, 
and feathers. The same man tells me that he discovered another pair 
building.' The head man of the town of Jintee brought me an egg 
of the Hoopoe : it was of a very pale blue, or rather skim-milk 
colour. He found a nest in a hole in a fort wall ; it was made soft 
with a few pieces of hemp, and contained three eggs." — (Lieut. 
Burgess, P. Z. S. (1855), p. 27.) 
" In Ceylon, the Hoopoe is common in the Jaffna peninsula during 
the season of its stay, and I have every reason to believe that it not 
unfrequently breeds with us, as I shot a young bird not fuUy fledged 
in August. I saw the bird at Hambantotte and Trincomalee, and 
procured one specimen in Colombo. They feed much on the ground, 
and are indefatigable in scratching into the ordure of cattle, in search 
of small coleopterous insects. At such times the crest is carried flat 
on the head ; but when seated on a tree-top, uttering its monotonous 
* hoop, Jioop, hoojp^ the crest is rapidly elevated and depressed, the 
bird swinging itself backwards and forwards at every repetition of its 
note."— (E. L. Layard.) 
Genus Irissor, Less. Tr. d'Orn.p. 239 (1831). 
1056. IRISSOR ERYTHRORYNCHOS, Lath. Sp. 
TJpupa erythrorhynchos. Lath., Ind. Orn. I. p. 280 ; Gen. 
Hist. ofB. IV. p. 109; Nat. Misc. pi. 533 {Vieill. 
Ois. d'Or.ph 6. Le Vaill, From. pi. 1, 2, 3). 
