Mr. Ayres’ account of the species in Natal, though often referred to by other writers, is so excellent that no work treating of South African birds can omit it, and is therefore reproduced here in its entirety:—“In the stomach of the male were snakes, beetles, and other insects. These birds are gregarious, and to be found here all the year round, but are not very plentiful, generally three or four, sometimes more, being found together. They are very fond of hunting for their food on ground from which the grass has been burnt; with their strong bills they peck up the hard ground and turn over lumps in search of insects, making the dust fly again. Having found an insect or other food they take it up, and giving their head a toss, the bill pointing upward, appear to let the food roll down their throat. They also kill large snakes in the following manner, viz.:—On discovering a snake, three or four of the birds advance sideways towards it with their wings stretched out, and with their quills flap at and irritate the snake till he seizes them by the wing-feathers, when they immediately all close round and give him violent pecks with their long and sharp bills, quickly withdrawing again when the snake leaves his hold. This they repeat till the snake is dead. If the reptile advances on them they place both wings in front of them, completely covering the heads and most vulnerable parts. Their call, which consists of but one note repeated—a deep and sonorous coo-coo—may be heard at a great distance. I have myself heard it, under favourable circumstances, at a distance of nearly two miles. The call of the female is exactly the same coo-coo, only pitched one note higher than the male. The latter invariably calls first, the female immediately answering, and they continue this perhaps for five or ten minutes, every now and then, as they are feeding. Their flight is heavy, and when disturbed, although very shy, they seldom fly more than half a mile before they alight again. At a distance they would easily be mistaken for Turkeys, their body being deep and rather compressed, similarly to those birds, with the wings carried well on the back. The little pouch on the throat they are able to fill with air at pleasure, the male bird sent to me to London doing this before he died. I think their principal range of country is on the coast and from twenty to thirty miles inland. They roost on trees at night, but always feed on the ground.”
In Angola, where the bird is called by the natives Engungoashito, Mr. Monteiro had great difficulty in procuring specimens, on account of the superstitious dread in which they are held by the natives. He says:—“They are found sparingly nearly everywhere in Angola, becoming abundant, however, only towards the interior. In the mountain range in which Pungo Andongo is situated, and running nearly north and south, they are common, and it was near the base of these mountains that I shot these two specimens. They are seen in flocks of six or eight (the natives say always in equal numbers of males and females). Farther in the interior I was credibly informed that they are found in flocks of from one to two hundred individuals. The males raise up and open and close their tails exactly in the manner of a Turkey, and filling out their bright cockscomb-red, bladder-like wattle on their necks, and with wings dropping on the ground, make quite a grand appearance. They do not present a less extraordinary appearance as they walk slowly with an awkward gait, and peer from side to side with their great eyes in quest of food in the short grass, poking their large bills at any frog, snake, &c., that may come in their way. Their flight is feeble and not long sustained. When alarmed, they generally fly up to the nearest large tree, preferring such as have thick branches with but little foliage, as the Adansonia, ‘Muenzo’ (a wild fig). Here they squat close on the branches, and, if further alarmed, raise themselves quite upright on their legs in an attitude of listening, with wide open bills. The first to notice a person at once utters the customary cry, and all fly off to the next tree. They are very wary, and the grass near the mountains being comparatively short, with but little scrub or birch, it is very difficult to approach without being observed by them from the high trees. I followed a flock of six for upwards of two hours, crawling flat on my stomach, negro fashion, before I obtained a chance of a shot, when I was so fortunate as to break the wing of a male without otherwise injuring it. It was quickly captured by the blacks. They are omnivorous in their food; reptiles, birds, eggs, beetles, and all other insects, mandioca roots, ginguba or ground-nuts, constitute their food in the wild state. In confinement I have fed this bird upon the same food, also upon fresh fish, which it showed itself very fond of, as well as on entrails of fowls, &c. On letting it loose in Loanda in a yard where there were several fowls with chickens, it immediately gulped down its throat six of the latter, and finished its breakfast with several eggs! The note or cry of the male is like the hoarse blast of a horn, repeated short three times, and answered by the female in a lower note. It is very loud, and can be heard at a considerable distance, particularly at night. They are said to build their nests on the very highest Adansonias, in the hollow or cavity formed at the base or junction of the branches with the trunk.”
The present species is of a very large size, measuring about forty inches in length, and about nineteen inches in the wing. It is entirely black, with the exception of the primary quills, which are white; the bill and legs are black, but the bare skin on the neck and round the eye is bright red in the male, but blue in the female.
THE FIFTH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS.
THE HOOPOES (Upupidæ).
Different as these birds are in appearance and habits, ornithologists now agree that from their structure they must be placed in close alliance with the Hornbills, with which they are more particularly connected by the Wood Hoopoes. Instead of the ungainly figures and top-heavy-looking casques of the Hornbills, the Hoopoes are remarkable for their graceful carriage and elegant figure, in which the beautiful crest plays an important part. They are particularly at home in the desert countries, where their sandy-coloured plumage is no doubt a great protection to them; and a story is told that the Hoopoe, if it sees a Hawk approaching, will throw itself flat on the ground, and by twisting its wings round in front and remaining motionless, with its bill pointing upwards, it will look like a piece of old rag, and thus escape detection.
Not more than five species of Hoopoe are known, all inhabitants of the Old World, and the most widely distributed is the Common Hoopoe (Upupa epops) of Europe, which visits England during the spring and autumn migration, and at least one instance of its breeding in that country is known. Mr. Howard Saunders states[278]:—“In the year 1847 a pair of Hoopoes nested in a hole of an old yew-tree in a shrubbery of an old-fashioned garden at Leatherhead, Surrey. The proprietor was very anxious that the birds should not be disturbed, and a strict veto was placed upon any bird’s-nesting in the shrubbery—a severe trial to our boyish propensities; but we were afterwards rewarded by seeing the parent birds with their young strutting about upon the lawn. As well as I remember, there were five young ones besides the two old birds.” The species is found all over central and southern Europe in summer, being in some places very plentiful; but it is a rare visitor to the northern parts, and has disappeared from some countries, like Denmark, for instance, where the felling of the old and hollow forest trees has deprived it of its accustomed breeding-places. In some places the bird is disliked, and in Scandinavia, where it occurs only in the southern and central portions, it bears a bad name among the peasantry, who suppose it to be a foreboder of war and hard times, and from this circumstance its name of Härfugel or “army bird,” is derived. The Chinese also have an objection to them, branding them by the name of “Coffin-bird,” as they often breed in the holes of exposed Chinese coffins. On the other hand, according to Canon Tristram, in the Sahara the Arabs have a superstitious veneration for the Hoopoe, and its magical properties enter largely into the arcana of the Arab “hakeem.” He says that great numbers of Hoopoes resort to the M’zab cities and frequent oases in winter, where they strut about the courtyards and round the tents with the familiarity of barn-door fowls. Mons. Favier says, that in Tangier the superstitious Jews and Mahomedans both believe that the heart and feathers of the Hoopoe are charms against the machinations of evil spirits.
COMMON HOOPOE.
The ordinary name of Hoopoe is derived from the note of the bird, and in most European languages the latter suggests the vernacular names. Thus, in Bulgaria it is called Poo-poo, in Valentia Put-Put, Bubbula, &c., in Italy, Poupa in Portugal, and so on. Mr. Swinhoe writes of the bird and its note as follows:—“I have already described the peculiar way in which the Hoopoe produces its notes—by puffing out the sides of its neck, and hammering on the ground at the production of each note, thereby exhausting the air at the end of the series of three, which makes up its song. Before it repeats its call, it repeats the puffing of the neck with a slight gurgling noise. When it is able to strike its bill, the sound is the correct hoo-hoo-hoo; but when perched on a rope, and only jerking out the song with nods of the head, the notes more resemble the syllables hoh-hoh-hoh. Mr. Darwin makes use of this last fact to show that some birds have instrumental means to produce their music. It is not to this point, however, that I wish to call attention, but to the fact of the bird’s puffing out the sides of its neck. It is generally supposed that the song of a bird is produced by actions of the lower larynx on air passing up the bronchial tubes onwards and outwards through the main tube, or trachea. The trachea of the Hoopoe is not dilatable, but its œsophagus is; and the puffing of the neck is caused by the bulging of the œsophagus with swallowed air. There is no connection between the œsophagus and the trachea, and apparently no organ at the entrance to the former that could modify sound. What action, then, can this swallowed air be made to take in the production of the bird’s notes? Pigeons have strikingly large air-crops, which they empty with each coo, and refill before they coo again. Many birds swell out the throat when calling or singing, and others move it up and down. These actions must also be caused by the swallowed air in the œsophagus, and must modify the sounds in some way, as variously used, adding power and richness in some cases, or giving ventriloquistic effect in others. This question seems never to have been enquired into before, and I throw out the hint in hopes that others may help to elucidate the matter with their investigations.”