(Upupa Epops, Linn.-Le Huppe ou Puput, Buff.) LENGTH twelve inches; breadth nineteen. The bill is about two inches long, black, slender, and somewhat curved; eyes hazel; the tongue very short and triangular; the head is ornamented with a crest, consisting of a double row of feathers, of a pale orange yellow, tipped with black, the highest about two inches in length; the neck is pale reddish brown; breast and belly white, and in young birds marked with various dusky lines pointing downwards; the back, scapulars and wings are crossed with broad bars of black and white; the lesser coverts of the wings light brown; rump white; the tail consists of ten feathers, each marked with white, and when closed, assumes the form of a crescent, the horns pointing downwards: the legs are short and black.

manner.

This is the only species of its kind found in this kingdom; and it is not very common with us, being seen only at uncertain periods. The foregoing representation was taken from a very fine one, shot near Bedlington, and sent for this work, by the Rev. Henry Cotes. In its stomach were found the claws and other indigestible parts of insects of the beetle tribe: it was alive sometime after being shot, and walked about, erecting its tail and crest in a very pleasing The sexes differ little in appearance; they moult once a year. The female is said to have two or three broods in the year; she makes no nest, but lays her eggs, generally about four or five in number, in the hollow of a tree, and sometimes in a hole of a wall, or even on the ground. Buffon says, that he has sometimes found a soft lining of moss, wool, or feathers, in the nests of these birds, and supposes that, in this case, they may have used the deserted nest of some other bird. Its food consists chiefly of insects, with the remains of which its nest is sometimes so filled as to become extremely offensive. It is a solitary bird, two of them being seldom seen together: in Egypt, where they are very common, they are seen only in small flocks. Its crest usually falls behind on its neck, except when it is surprised or irritated; it then stands erect; and its tail also, as well as its crest, is generally at the same time erected, and spread like a fan.

T

(Merops Apiaster, Linn.-Le Guepier, Buff.)

THE bill is about one inch and three-eighths long from the tip to where the ridge on the upper mandible meets the white feathers of the brow; it is of a somewhat triangular shape, and of a dark colour, thickish at the base curved, and small at the tip; the nostrils are nearly covered with hairy looking feathers; the eye-brows green; a stripe of black passes from the corners of the mouth over the eyes, and terminates behind the auriculars, and tapers off towards the hinder part of the neck; the crown of the head, hinder part of the neck, the back, and upper plumage are mostly in deeper and lighter shades of a brilliant reddish chesnut, but the terminations of the shoulder feathers, which fall over the scapulars, partake of pale or

whitish yellow; the chin and upper part of the neck are yellow, boundered by a black line; below this, towards the shoulders, and all the under parts, are of a glossy verditer green; the lesser coverts are green; the scapulars, some of the secondaries, the primaries, and the tail are also of that colour, but shaded off with yellow brown; the tail is long, and somewhat forked, the two middle feathers longest, and pointed; the legs and feet, which are similar in conformation to those of the King-fisher, are black; and, like that bird, it makes its nest in the banks of rivers, at the end of a long hole; the eggs are white, and nearly oval; from these circumstances, the general contour of its figure, and its brilliant plumage, it bears some affinity to the genus Alcedo. This beautiful and rare visitant has sometimes been met with in Devonshire.

Through the medium of the late Lieut. J. A. Howard, of the seventy-third regiment, we have obtained from Mr Leadbeater, Bird and Animal Preserver to the British Museum, the specimen from which our figure was taken, and beg to acknowledge our obligations for the facilities thus afforded to the work.

* Now in the Newcastle Museum.

(Certhia familiaris, Linn.-Le Grimpereau, Buff.)

LENGTH five inches and a half; the body is about the size of that of the Wren. The bill is long, slender, and curved, the upper mandible brown, the lower whitish; eyes hazel; the head, neck, back, and wing coverts are dark brown, variegated with streaks of a lighter hue; the throat, breast, and belly silvery white; rump tawny; the quills are dusky, edged with tawny, and marked with bars of the same; tips white; above each eye a small dark line passes towards the neck, above which there is a line of white: the tail is long, and consists of twelve stiff brownish feathers, pointed and forked at the end; the legs are short, and brown; claws long, sharp, and much hooked, by which it is enabled to run with great facility on all sides of small branches of trees in quest of insects and