The length of the Common Hoopoe is about one foot; the upper surface is greyish-brown, the wings and shoulders black barred with white, the rump being pure white; on the head, which is tawny-coloured, is an enormous crest, the feathers of which have a black tip, before which is a narrow white bar; the tail is black; with a white band at about a third of its length from the end; underneath the body is pale cinnamon, white on the abdomen and under tail coverts, the flanks striped with brown. The sexes are alike in colour, excepting that the female is a little paler.
THE WOOD HOOPOES (Irrisor).
All the birds belonging to this section of the Hoopoes are remarkable for their very long and strongly graduated tails, for their brilliant metallic plumage, which is always dark, and inclining more or less to black—instead of a sandy colour, as in the true Hoopoes—and most of them for their very curved, scimitar-like bills. They are all natives of Africa, and have a remarkably loud, chattering note; and from its harsh and resounding voice the Red-billed Wood Hoopoe (I. erythrorhynchus) is known among the Dutch at the Cape as “Cackala,” or the “Chatterer.” The late M. Jules Verreaux told the writer that the noise made by these birds is tremendous, and that on one occasion he was attracted by an uproar, which seemed to indicate that something unusual was the matter. On proceeding to the place whence the noise came, he was astonished to find on the low branch of a tree three of these birds, perched one on the back of the other, betokening by their drooping wings and repeated chatterings the utmost consternation and fright. The cause of this was not far to seek, for just below the birds was a cobra, balancing himself in an erect attitude, and perfectly motionless, the only indication of life being the incessant flicking of the animal’s tongue. The cacklings of the birds became feebler and feebler, until at last the bottom one fell off the perch and dropped into the extended jaws of the snake, which were ready to receive it; while the other two birds, apparently freed from the spell of the reptile’s eye, took to instant flight. Having his gun in his hand, M. Verreaux shot the snake immediately; but on going to rescue the bird, found that the latter was quite dead. Mr. Thomas Ayres, who has studied the species in Natal, says:—“The food of these birds consists almost entirely of a species of cockroach, which they take from the crevices of rough-barked trees, and in search of which they creep about the trunk and branches somewhat similarly to the Woodpeckers. In this manner their tail-feathers frequently become much worn. From four to eight of these birds are generally together, and frequent busby country. They have a loud chattering note, and are extremely restless in their habits. They have a peculiarly powerful and disagreeable smell.” Mr. Andersson’s account of the species is as follows:—“It lives in small flocks—probably consisting of entire families—which frequent trees, chiefly of the larger kinds, and examine them most assiduously in search of insects and their larvæ, which they extract from crevices in the wood and from beneath the bark. These birds climb like Woodpeckers; and their long tails come into constant contact with the rough surface of the trees, by which the tail-feathers are much injured. When they have finished their examination of one tree they move to the next convenient one, but not all together, as a short interval generally elapses after the departure of each individual. The moment flight is decided on, they utter harsh discordant cries or chatterings, which are continued until they are all safely lodged in their new quarters. These harsh notes are also heard when they conceive themselves in danger from either man, beast, or bird; and they thus often betray their presence.”
The present species measures about seventeen inches, the tail being about ten out of that number, and being thus three inches longer than the body of the bird. The colour is black, glossed with green on the head, back, and under surface, with blue on the throat, purple on the wings and tail, and having a bronzy gloss on the shoulders. All the tail feathers, except the two centre ones, have a white spot near the tip and across the wings a white bar. The bill and legs are bright coral red.
CHAPTER X.
THE BEE-EATERS—MOTMOTS—ROLLERS—TROGONS—NIGHTJARS, OR GOATSUCKERS—SWIFTS—HUMMING BIRDS.
[THE BEE-EATERS]—Their Brilliant Plumage—Colonel Irby’s Account of the Bird in Spain—Shot for Fashion’s sake—[THE MOTMOTS]—Appearance—Mr. Waterton on the Houtou—Curious Habit of Trimming its Tail—Mr. O. Salvin’s Observations on this point—Mr. Bartlett’s Evidence—[THE ROLLERS]—Why so called—Canon Tristram’s Account of their Habits—Colour—Other Species—[THE TROGONS]—Where found—Peculiar Foot—Tender Skin—Inability to Climb—Their Food—[THE LONG-TAILED TROGON, OR QUESAL]—Mr. Salvin’s Account of its Habits—Its Magnificent Colour—How they are Hunted—[THE NIGHTJARS, OR GOATSUCKERS]—Appearance—Distribution—The Guacharo, or Oil-bird—“Frog-mouths”—Mr. Gould’s Account of the Habits of the Tawny-shouldered Podargus—How it Builds its Nest—Mr. Waterton’s Vindication of the Goatsucker—What Services the Bird does really render Cattle, Goats, and Sheep—Its Cry—[THE COMMON GOATSUCKER]—[THE SWIFTS]—[THE COMMON SWIFT]—Migration—Their Home in the Air—Where they Breed—Nest—TREE SWIFTS—The Edible-Nest Swiftlets—Mr. E. L. Layard’s Visit to the Cave of the Indian Swiftlet—[THE HUMMING BIRDS]—Number of Species—Distribution—Professor Newton’s Description of the Bird—Mr. Wallace on their Habits—Wilson on the North American Species.
THE SIXTH FAMILY OF THE FISSIROSTRAL PICARIAN BIRDS.
THE BEE-EATERS (Meropidæ).
THE Bee-eaters are among the most brightly plumaged of the Picarian birds, and are distributed over the whole of Africa, India, the Moluccas, and Australia. One species (Merops apiaster) visits Europe in the summer, being, however, nowhere so common as in the countries of the Mediterranean basin, though they occasionally wander to England. Colonel Irby[279] gives the following account of the Bee-eater in Southern Spain:—“The bird did not appear to me to be quite so common in Morocco at the end of April as on the Spanish side of the Strait, where, during April, May, June, and July, it is one of the most conspicuous birds in the country; at that season, Andalusia without Bee-eaters would be like London without Sparrows. Everywhere they are to be seen; and their single note, teerp, heard continually repeated, magnifies their numbers in imagination. Occasionally, they venture into the centre of towns when on passage, hovering round the orange-trees and flowers in some patio or garden. Crossing the Strait for the most part in the early part of the day, flight follows flight for hours in succession. When passing at Gibraltar, they sometimes skim low down to settle for a moment on a bush or a tree, but generally go straight on, often almost out of sight; but their cry always betrays their presence in the air. In some places they nest in large colonies; in others there are, perhaps, only two or three holes. When there are no river-banks or barrancos in which to bore holes, they tunnel down into the ground, where the soil is suitable, in a vertical direction, generally on some slight elevated mound. The shafts to these nests are not usually so long as those in banks of rivers, which sometimes reach to a distance of eight or nine feet in all; the end is enlarged into a round sort of chamber, on the bare soil of which the usual four or five shining white eggs are placed. After a little they become discoloured from the castings of the old birds, the nest being, as it were, lined with the wings and undigested parts of Bees and Wasps. Vast numbers of eggs and young must be annually destroyed by Snakes and Lizards. The latter are often seen sunning themselves at the entrance of a hole among a colony of Bee-eaters; and frequently have I avenged the birds by treating the yellow reptile to a charge of shot. The bills of Bee-eaters, after boring out their habitations, are sometimes worn away to less than half their usual length; but as newly-arrived birds never have these stumpy bills, it is evident that they grow again to their ordinary length. It has often been a source of wonder to me how they have the exertion to make these long tunnels: the amount of exertion must be enormous; but when one considers the boles of the Sand-Martin, it is perhaps not so surprising after all. During my stay at Gibraltar, Bee-eaters decreased very much in the neighbourhood, being continually shot on account of their bright plumage, to put in ladies’ hats. Owing to this sad fashion, I saw no less than seven hundred skins, all shot at Tangier in the spring of 1874, which were consigned by Olcese to some dealer in London. However, the enormous injury these birds do to the peasants who keep Bees fully merits any amount of punishment, but, at the same time, they destroy quantities of Wasps. After being fired at once or twice, they become very wary and shy at the breeding-places; and the best way to shoot them is to hide near the colmenares, or groups of corchos, or cork bee-hives, which in Spain are placed in rows, sometimes to the number of seventy or eighty together; and it is no unusual thing to see as many Bee-eaters whirling round and swooping down, even seizing the bees at the very entrance of their hives. The reason of their early departure in August is to be accounted for by the simple fact that bees cease to work when there are no flowers, and by that time all vegetation is scorched up.” The Bee-eater suffers probably less from the fashionable rage after its plumes than do some of the bright-coloured birds, as it goes in winter to South Africa, where it rears another brood of young ones.
AUSTRALIAN BEE-EATER.