ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE HOOPOES
The True Hoopoes
(Subfamily Upupince).—These pretty and graceful little birds, which take their common name from their peculiar call, are all comprised in a single genus ( Upupa) and seven species, and are entirely of Old World distribution, ranging over the more open portions of much of the temperate and tropical parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
They are between ten and a half and twelve inches in length, and have a long, slender bill which is curved downward from the base; the tongue, however, is very short. The most marked external feature is a splendid erectile crest, of which the hinder feathers are the longer, which occupies the median line of the crown from the very base of the bill backward.
Of other features it may be mentioned that they possess a short, Lark-like tarsus, short, rounded wings with ten primaries, and a moderately long, square tail of ten feathers.
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