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ABOUT THE HOOPOE. 
vulture, he plays the part of scavenger with praiseworthy industry 
and completeness. Were it not for his labours, the air, with rank and 
poisonous breath, would scatter everywhere the germs of disease ; but 
he and his companions form a kind of sanitary police, whose labours 
are as unremitting as they are beneficial. As if conscious that his 
usefulness entitles him to immunity from ill-usage, he stalks to and fro 
with perfect confidence, taking no notice of the passer-by, and even 
following him into his habitation. 
It has been well said that the hoopoe is a very interesting bird, 
and that there is something peculiar in his habits. For while he 
shows all this confidence and familiarity in the south, in the warm 
African lands, in the north — that is, in the temperate provinces of 
Europe — he manifests the greatest caution and timidity. It may be 
assumed, however, that at bottom he is no hero; for even in Africji 
the appearance of a dog arouses his alarm ; a cat scares, and a cow 
affrights him ; while the ominous shadow of kite or hawk throws him 
into a panic of terror. He crouches on the ground, spreads wide his 
wings and tail, turns his head over his shoulder, raises his gaping beak, 
and remains in this attitude of direst apprehension until the danger 
has passed, the enemy disappeared. Naumann asserts that he is afraid 
of a swallow. It is quite amusing, he says, to watch this bird from a 
place of concealment. Everything startles him ; he is constantly 
running to take shelter in the thick foliage of the nearest tree; and in 
his flight he raises aloud his sonorous voice, and performs the most 
singular movements. Generally he does not display his crest, but 
keeps it closed up and turned back ; when irritated, however, he 
agitates it ; and displays it in all its glory when he is perched on a tree 
or whiling away the time with a song. 
In convenient localities the hoopoes make their nests beside each 
other; yet it would be erroneous to class them among the sociable 
birds. The members of a family seem to live on cordial terms, but 
with their neighbours they are incessantly at war. Not that they 
come to blows — they are too cowardly to proceed to such extremities ; 
but they chase one another with little intermission, and in various 
significant ways make known their mutual antipathy. Nor do they 
