624 
BIRD-LIFE, 
middle of the towns or villages, because the cleanly habits 
of the inhabitants^), even within the precincts of the 
town or village, renders such a habitation everything that 
can be desired, as far as the habits of the bird are con¬ 
cerned. The hole is sometimes lined with a few straws, 
though the eggs are generally found deposited on the 
bare floor of the hole. The female hatches-out the eggs 
in sixteen days, and sits so close that she may be easily 
taken off the nest with the hand. The young ones are at 
first but sparsely covered with gray down; they are fed 
by the old birds with larvae and beetles, and are tended 
with great care, the parents showing extraordinary affec¬ 
tion for the young brood. The nestlings are slow growers, 
and only abandon the nest long after they have learnt to 
fly. The nest itself soon acquires a very powerful and 
disagreeable odour of dung, as the parents are unable, by 
reason of the awkward shape of their bills, to carry off the 
excreta of their young; these latter, after a time, are up 
to their necks in filth, and when this decomposes, the 
stench of either the young or the old birds is quite 
unbearable. Doubtless from this the idea has sprung 
that the Hoopoe constructs her nest of dung. The female, 
while sitting, does not even take the trouble to keep from 
defiling her own nest. This disgusting accumulation 
is the rendezvous of swarms of flies, which deposit 
their eggs in the mass, so that in the end the nest 
becomes nothing else than a heap of dung and maggots. 
The young birds are the most offensive, though the 
old ones smell far from sweet; this odour clings 
to them all for weeks after the whole party have left 
the nest. 
A family of Hoopoes affords a very pretty spectacle, 
old and young vying with each other in the comicality of 
