c Xhe Hijiory ^ANIMALS. 41 i 
to the very back-part of the head : the bird has a power of railing or deprefling this 
at pleafure 5 it is compofed of twenty-four or twenty-fix feathers, and fome of thefe 
are much longer than the others3 thefe are tipped with black, and fome of the under 
part with white3 the reft of the creft is yellow, but that not a fine bright yellow, but 
with a tinge of a chefnut-brown : the neck is of a beautiful reddifh-brown5 the 
bread: is white, variegated with lines of black tending downwards5 but, as the bird 
grows older, the middle of the breaft becomes abfolutely white, and thefe black va¬ 
riegations are only feen on the fides. 
The tail is between four and five fingers breadth long, and is black * it is compofed 
of ten feathers; in the middle of it there is an elegant fpot of white, large, and of the 
figure of a new moon 3 the back or gibbofe part looking towards the body, the horns 
toward the extremity of the tail: the wings are moderately large, when expanded 5 
they meafure about fixteen inches from tip to tip, and, when clofed, they reach nearly 
to the tip of the tail: the long feathers in each are eighteen5 the ten firfl of thefe 
are black, with a white area on each 3' the fucceeding ones have alfo a white area on 
them, and the tips and edges of fome of the laft are reddifh* 
The back is very elegantly variegated with black and white, in little alternate {paces 
on every feather: the legs are fhort, and not very rebuff:3 the toes are moderately 
long : the outer toe is connected to the middle one, fome part of the way down, with¬ 
out the help of a membrane: the claws are moderately long and fharp. 
This bird is a native of the northern parts of Europe, but is no where very plen^- 
tiful. It had been long known in Germany and Sweden, before it was fuppofed 
to be a native of England, and feveral of our old writers declare it not to be fuch. 
Ray produces the teftimony of people who had feen it with us5 and I have myfelf 
fhot it on the vaft heath, called Hind-Head, in SufTex : it is a very fhy bird 3 I found 
it on the wet parts of the heath. It’s food is infeds, ants, fmall beetles, and the like. 
The antients were well acquainted with it. The Greeks called it and Arif- 
totle tells us, that it ufed human dung inftead of clay for the lining of it’s neft, but 
there is no late obfervation to countenance this. The Latin writers have all deferibed it 
under the fame fimple name Upupa5 fome have alfo continued the Greek one, and 
called it Epops five Upupa. We call it the Hoop or the Hoopoe 5 the Germans, the 
Widehuppe 3 names which feem to have been all formed from it’s note, which is 
very loud, and almoff continually repeated. 
I S P I D A. 
T H E beak of the Ifpida is of a trigonal figure, fomewhat arcuated, compreffed, 
and equal: there are four toes to each foot, but only one of them behind. 
Ifpida dorfo cceruleo , peStore rufefeente . 
fhe blue-bached Ifpida , with a reddijh breaft . 
This is one of the moft beautiful of the European birds : the head is moderately 
large and flatted 5 the whole bird is about the bignefs of a lark, but of an extreamly 
different fhape, broader on the back, and flatter: the eyes are moderately large and 
piercing 3 the beak is near an inch and a quarter in length, and is almoff ffraight, 
ffrong, acute, and all over black, except at the corners of the mouth, where it is 
whitifh : the two chaps are about of the fame length 5 the noffrils are large and ob¬ 
long, and the infide of the mouth is yellow : the tongue is broad and fhort, and is 
pointed, and not divided at the extremity. 
The throat is white, but with fome faint admixture of a reddifh-brown : the breaft 
and belly are alfo of the fame colour, but with more of the reddifh tinge 5 and the 
lower part of the belly, toward the tail, is of a full and ftrong reddifh tinge 3 the fides 
alfo. 
