ch. iv.] Bird Catching. 73 



where I stayed a week or two, and a more voracious bird 

 I never saw. At night it would perch itself on a stick 

 below the house and croak for hours together, but with 

 daylight in the morning it would enter the house to beg 

 for food, and the quantities it could consume during 

 the day were surprisingly large. Everything edible 

 seemed equally welcome rice, fruit, vegetables, and 

 even the entire bodies of small birds which my boy had 

 been skinning as specimens were gulped down with 

 apparent relish. Any trifles thrown towards it were 

 sure of being caught in its great bill, and then thrown 

 again in the air and caught previous to their being 

 swallowed. 



The Kadyans have an ingenious way of capturing the 

 little green or piini pigeons (Chalcophaps indica) with a 

 bamboo call, by which their soft cooing notes are exactly 

 imitated. These birds are gregarious, and just before 

 breeding-time they arrive in large quantities. 



" The call is formed of two pieces of bamboo, a 

 slender tube, a short piece 3" 4" in diameter, and a 

 connecting piece of wood. In the short piece is a hole 

 similar to the embouchure of a flute ; and the lower end 

 of the blow-tube is fitted to this in such a manner that, on 

 blowing, a soft, low, flute-like ' cooing' is easily producible ; 

 and this can be readily modulated so as to be heard either 

 at a long distance or near at hand. This instrument is 

 figured in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, Part II., p. 34G. The 

 native, who has taken up his position in the forest or 

 jungle where these little birds are found, blows very 

 softly at first ; but if there be no answering call from 

 the birds he blows louder and louder, thus increasing the 

 radius of sound. If there really be any pigeons of this 

 kind within hearing, they are sure to answer; and then the 

 hunter blows softer and softer until they are enticed into 



