INDO-CHINA 55 
this being the only way of ever getting a glimpse of such shy 
creatures—and even then it was a question of luck. Several of 
these I caught in spring-net traps baited with meal-worms and set 
in damp places in the forest, without having seen the birds before- 
hand. 
Another pitta, called Swinhoe’s, did not make its appearance till 
later on, it being a migrant from Formosa. We brought all three 
species home alive, this being their first importation to Europe. 
Renauld’s Ground Cuckoo was another inhabitant of the denser 
parts of these forests that had remained almost unknown until 
Delacour’s expeditions to Indo-China in the twenties. This cuckoo 
is terrestrial in habits, being as shy and retiring as any of the 
pheasants, but it is not parasitic and apparently nests in trees. It is 
a striking bird about the size of a fowl, with red beak and legs, 
bronzy-black head, neck and breast, gray back, and pale yellow 
under parts. A number were brought to us by the same trappers 
who brought in the pheasants, and they quickly became tame and 
thrived on our insectile mixture with addition of minced raw meat 
and chopped hard-boiled egg. We brought home twelve of these 
quaint denizens of the forest. 
This is another instance of trappers bringing to light apparently 
conspicuous birds which, through their secretive mode of life 
in impenetrable forest thickets, would probably have remained 
unknown if collecting were limited to the usual method of obtain- 
ing specimens with shotguns. Although it is among the ground- 
dwelling birds of the forest that there are such large gaps in our 
knowledge of their numbers and habits, occasionally one comes 
across a fairly large bird of arboreal habits, specimens of which 
have somehow managed to escape spending their after-life in a 
museum drawer. 
There is a very beautiful cissa, or hunting crow, known as 
Chaulet’s Cissa, that inhabits the Col des Nuages. It is conspicuous 
enough, being the size of a jay, with bright yellow under parts 
and greenish upper parts with a golden tinge. Prior to our visit 
it was known only by the type specimen and no European had 
ever seen it alive. Cissas, being mainly insectivorous, like to sit on 
a low horizontal branch and watch the forest bed for signs of any 
moving insect on which they can pounce. 
