134 JUNGLE FOLK 



the short-tailed p3^e, the ant-thrush, the painted thrush, 

 and the ground thrush. But it is not a jay, neither is it 

 a quail, nor a thrush, nor a tailless pye. It is a bird 

 made on a special model. It belongs to a peculiar 

 family, to a branch of the great order of perching birds, 

 which differs from all the other clans in some im- 

 portant anatomical details. Into these we will not go, 

 for they belong to morphology, the science which 

 concerns itself chiefly with the dry bones of zoology, 

 with the lifeless aspect of the science of life. 



The Indian pitta is a bird which likes warmth, but 

 not heat, so that it refuses to live in the Punjab, where 

 the climate is one of extremes — a spell of cold, then a 

 headlong rush into a period of intense heat, followed 

 by an equally sudden return to a low temperature. The 

 pitta seems to occur in all parts of Eastern, Central, 

 and Southern India, undergoing local migration to the 

 south in the autumn and back again in the spring. In 

 places where the climate is never very hot or very 

 cold, as, for example, Madras and the hills in Ceylon, 

 some individuals seem to remain throughout the year. 

 I have seen pittas in Madras at all seasons, and I know 

 of no better testimonial to the excellence of the climate 

 of that city. Jerdon writes of the pitta : "In the 

 Carnatic it chiefly occurs in the beginning of the hot 

 weather, when the land-winds first begin to blow with 

 violence from the west ; and the birds in many 

 instances appear to have been blown, by the strong 

 wind, from the Eastern Ghauts, for, being birds of 

 feeble flight, they are unable to contend against the 

 strength of the wind. At this time they take refuge in 



