PITTA. 311 



From Murwillumbah, on the Tweed River, Mr. W. J. Grime wrote me as follows on the 4th 

 July, 1890 : — " Dragoon -birds are particularly numerous this year, and very easily got. 1 have 

 heard it said that they are very shy, but I can assure you that I have the greatest difficulty in 

 getting them sufficiently far from me to fire at without blowing them to pieces. Frequently I 

 have whistled them up, and the first thing I would know was the bird actually sitting within 

 ten feet of me. I have stood up suddenly and stamped my foot to try and scare them off, and in 

 some instances have actually thrown sticks at them, but they simply hopped and kept around 

 me. I have whistled up as many as a dozen in an afternoon, and had them come too near to 

 shoot, and came away without one. Dragoon-birds are more numerous some seasons than 

 others." 



From Alstonville, in the Richmond River District, Mr. H. R. El very has sent me the 

 following note under date 27th June, 1899:—" I have to report an unusual last season's nesting 

 site oi Pitta strepitans, which I lately came across, placed on a ledge formed between the spurs of a 

 Booyong tree, at a height of four feet three inches from the ground. This is the first instance 

 in which I have found a nest of this species not built on the ground ; usually it is placed 

 between the spurs of a tree, and if on sloping ground always on the lower side. This season my 

 brother-in-law found a nest containing four eggs, the nest being placed between two large stones. 

 The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, although frequently only three are found. In 

 November, 1897, I took a set of live. This bird breeds during October, November and 

 December." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby met with this species in the Blackall Ranges, South-eastern Queensland, 

 and writes :— " I shot a Pi.tta strepitans when about to fly from the top of a tree, about forty feet 

 high; I had only expected to see this species on the ground." 



Dr. E. P. Ramsay writes as follows :— " I know of no bird more elegant, and which trips 

 over the fallen leaves and logs, or threads its way through the tangled masses of vegetation with 

 such grace and ease as Fitta strepitans. By means of its note, which is easily imitated by trying 

 to whistle the words " want a watch," the bird may be called up within a few feet of its pursuer. 

 I have frequently called it to me, and watched its graceful motions as it would hop on the dead 

 logs, roots and spurs of trees, run along for a few yards, then stop and call and appear greatly 

 exdted at not finding its supposed mate. The Pitta is seldom seen off the ground or logs, but 

 sometimes an odd one may be seen perched ten or twenty feet high, calling loudly, as if for 

 amusement. I never saw the Pittas take wing when flushed from the ground ; but running 

 noiselessly away with all possible speed, they are soon hidden from view. At times, when seated 

 on a log to rest myself, one has come in sight, walking cautiously along, now running for a few 

 yards, then stopping short, and picking up some unhappy Hcltx which it has discovered by the 

 side of a log, with a sharp rap against the first hard substance it sees breaks the shell and devours 

 the animal." Those who have traversed the brushes frequented by the Noisy Pitta, must have 

 noticed stones against which numbers of land shells have been broken ; these are the work of 

 the Pitta, for when it has found a shell not easily broken it runs off with it to the nearest stone, 

 and there by holding it in its bill and rapping it against the stone, soon effects its purpose. I 

 have found a considerable collection of broken shells upon several occasions, consisting of six or 

 eight species, and among these the large Helix fraseri. The cracking stones of the Pittas will 

 give a collector a very good idea of what shells occur in the vicinity, and several new and rare 

 species, not hitherto found on the Richmond River, were discovered through the industry of 

 Pitta strepitans." 



Mr. W. J. Grime forwarded me a nest and set of three eggs taken by him on an unusually 

 early date, the loth August, 1890. The nest is a large dome-shaped structure, with an entrance 

 in the side, and somewhat resembling a small nest of the Lyre-bird, the basal portion consisthig 

 of thin sticks and twigs, the remainder chiefly of bright green mosses, with which are intermingled 



