I was looking in this antique shop window and sure enough, the chess set in the window was set up the wrong way round. You would think that ,just by chance, they should get it right half of the time ..but no ! Anyhow, next to it was a framed picture .... that one up there. It was labelled as a "Hoopoe." I don't think so ! I've seen quite a few Hoopoes, and they were nothing like that up there. I looked in my massive book of World Birds to see if there were "other" sorts of Hoopoes .... and no, there's only 1..... BUT ... there are 8 species of "Wood-Hoopoes" There's Black, White-headed, Forest, Scimitar-Bill, Violet, Grant's. Abyssinian-Bill and Green. So naturally, I looked them up..... and a right mess they are .... many of the latin names don't seem to be the ones they are supposed to have, and they seem to be rather variably named .... but none of them look much like that "thing" up there. Here's what I found ... Black-billed Forest Grant's Green Scimitar-Bill Violet White-headed They've got a few things in common .... long tail, tree-living, curved bill ..but that's about it.
Personally, I think that bird is an invention dreamed up by the person who painted it. However, if any of you out there have any idea what it is, I would like to know. [email protected] or, of course, as a comment.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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