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colours are visible. I think I have nearly always to point out

the Pitta to visitors before the}’’ see it. On a few occasions I

have seen a Pitta endeavouring to escape observation by pre¬

senting only the dull green of the back parts to the gaze of its

pursuer, putting its head into a hole or corner for instance, but

that is altogether the exception, and I think only resorted to

after it has been discovered, and is endeavouring, in mad terror,

to hide from some cruel pursuer. On a perch, it never turns its

back to the enemy.


I must mention that the general idea that the Pitta, when

in health and plumage, is a ground bird is an erroneous one. It

is a bird of the bush and jungle, not of the ground. If it were a

ground bird, it would run like a Quail, or would walk like a

Jackdaw. It does neither, however, but proceeds by hopping,

getting over the ground remarkably quickly all the same. My

bird particularly dislikes the open garden, infinitely preferring

the gloom of the birdroom. A Pitta will never roost on the

ground, unless absolutely compelled to. In the birdroom they

usually went to roost far beyond my reach. I do not find that

they like to perch on stones or mounds, but invariably take to

the perches. The statements that I have met with that “ it

rarely alights on a tree” I think must be wholly erroneous,

unless high forest trees are meant. When not frightened, it

prefers the bush; but my birds, when flushed, invariably took to

the highest perches. I observe, too, that most of the accounts

of the Indian Pitta are simply cribs from Jerdon, who is ignored,

and the statements advanced as if they were the result of modern

and independent observation. It is thus that errors are per¬

petuated.


I have mentioned the wagging up and down of the Pitta’s

tail. I must also mention that sometimes, when perhaps a little

nervous and doubtful of one’s intentions, it commences flicking

its wings, and continues to do so for some time.


It occasionally takes a bath, but with me, not often. Per¬

haps I am too cold. It is only I think when two or more are in

a cage, and get dirty, that they take to tubbing at all freely.


I made many attempts to sex my Pittas. In July, I

“he’d” and “she’d” them as if I knew all about it but, as a

matter of fact, I have never been able to sex them with certainty

while they were alive. While they were alive, I sexed them more

by their ways than by their plumage. I may be wrong, but am

inclined to think that the “ crow ” is a sign of the male. My

survivor is, I believe, a female—and it crows; but I think it did



