Image: Upupa et Luscinia

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M0466 - M0467 - M0468

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467. Upupa et Luscinia. Upupa pulchra, varietate colorum distincta et eximie cristata, dixit lusciniae, “Tota nocte cantas; super ramos duros saltas. Veni et quiescas in nido meo.” Quae adquievit et in nidum upupae descendit, sed stercora fetentia invenit, quod ibi morari non potui et avolavit dicens, “Magis volo super duros ramos saltare quam in tali fetore quiescere.”

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M0467 (not in Perry). Source: Odo, Fable 41. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; Perry was not systematic in his coverage of medieval sources. The hoopoe is a paradoxical animal in European folklore: it possesses a beautiful crest of feathers, but it was also supposed to live in a nest made of filth and manure (one of the names for the hoopoe in German, for example, is stinkvogel, “the stink-bird”).