IMr. E. P. Ramsay on Australian Oology. 415 



wherever places suitable to its mode of life are to be found. It 

 frequents the thickets and densest parts of the scrubs, and, were 

 it not for its loud, liquid call, would seldom be found even when 

 searched for. 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 Pitta 

 strepitans. 



By means of its note, which is easily imitated in trying to 

 whistle the words " want-a-wat(ch)," 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 the trees, run along for a few yards, 

 then stop and call, and appear greatly excited 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 Helix which 

 it has discerned by the side of a log, then, with a sharp rap 

 against the first bard substance it sees, breaking the shell and 

 devouring 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 this 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 

 them the large Helix fr user i. 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. The Regent-bird [Sericulus melinus), too, I 

 have no doubt, frequently visits such stones, to obtain ornaments 



