UPUPA, in ornithology; a genus belonging to the order of pica. The beak is arcuated, convex, and something blunt; the tongue is obtuse, triangular, entire, and very short; and the feet are fitted for walking. There are ten species; one of which, the epops, hoopoe, or dung-bird, is frequently seen in Britain. It may be readily distinguished from all others that visit this island by its beautiful crest, which it can erect
or depreſſes at pleaſure. It is in length 15 inches; the bill is black, two inches and a half long, ſlender, and incurvated; the irides are hazel: the crest conſiſts of a double row of feathers; the higheſt about two inches long; the tips are black, their lower part of a pale orange colour: the neck is of a pale reddiſh brown; the breſt and belly white; the leſſer coverts of the wings are of a light brown; the back, ſcapulars, and wings, croſſed with broad bars of white and black; the rump is white; the tail conſiſts of only 10 feathers, white marked with black, in form of a creſcent, the horns pointing towards the end of the feathers. The legs are ſhort and black; the exterior toe is cloſely united at the bottom to the middle toe.
According to Linnæus, it takes its name from its note, which has a ſound ſimilar to the word; or it may be derived from the French huppe, or "creſted:" it breeds in hollow trees, and lays two aſh-coloured eggs: it feeds on inſects, which it picks out of ordure of all kinds. Dr Pallas affirms, that it breeds in preference in putrid carcasses; and that he had ſeen the neſt of one in the privy of an uninhabited houſe, in the ſuburbs of Tzariftyn.
Ovid ſays that Tereus was changed into this bird:
Vertitur in volucrem, cui ſtant in vertice criſta,
Prominet inmodicum pro longa cuſpida roſtrum:
Nomen eſtop volucris. Metam. lib. vi. l. 672.
Tereus, through grief and haſte to be reveng'd,
Shares the like fate, and to a bird is chang'd.
Fix'd on his head the creſted plumes appear.
Long is his beak, and ſharpen'd as a ſpear. Croxall.
UR (anc. geog.), a citadel of Meſopotamia, ſituated between the Tigris and Niſibis; taken by ſome for Ur of the Chaldees, the reſidence of Abraham. What ſeems to confirm this is, that from Ur to Haran, the other reſidence of the patriarch, the road lies directly for Paleſtine. And it is no objection that Ur is ſaid to be in Meſopotamia; becauſe the parts next the Tigris were occupied by the Chaldeans, as ſeems to be confirmed from Acts vii. 2, 4. It is called Orbe, in Strabo; Orcob, in Ptolemy.