An abundance analysis is reported of 58 K giants identified by Famaey et al .
( 2005 ) as highly probable members of the Hercules stream selected from stars north of the celestial equator in the Hipparcos catalogue .
The giants have compositions spanning the interval [ Fe/H ] from -0.17 to +0.42 with a mean value of +0.15 and relative elemental abundances [ El/Fe ] representative of the Galactic thin disc .
Selection effects may have biassed the selection from the Hipparcos catalogue against the selection of metal-poor stars .
Our reconsideration of the recent extensive survey of FG dwarfs which included metal-poor stars ( Bensby et al .
2014 ) provides a [ Fe/H ] distribution for the Hercules stream which is similar to that from the 58 giants .
It appears that the stream is dominated by metal-rich stars from the thin disc .
Suggestions in the literature that the stream includes metal-poor stars from the thick disc are discussed .