64 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



which is distinctly rare, but the latter is one of the 

 commonest birds in the country. It is a large black 

 and rusty-brown coloured bird which frequents gardens 

 and any land that has been cleared of forest. 



The native name for this Cuckoo, Bubut, is onoma- 

 topoeic, and the monotonous call is very often heard 

 in the places which the bird frequents scrub and 

 waste land overgrown with long grass and Lantana 

 bushes. It feeds on all sorts of insects, even the most 

 obnoxious species, such as the " woolly bear " cater- 

 pillars of Lasiocampid moths, the hair of which will 

 produce sores on the human skin. Dayaks assert that 

 the excrement of the bird will remove the skin from 

 the hand, and even if this is an exaggeration it is 

 quite evident that Centropus must be blessed with an 

 intestinal canal of "triple brass." 



There is an amusing folk-tale concerning this bird 

 and the Argus Pheasant, which runs as follows : Once 

 upon a time the Ruai (Argus Pheasant) and the 

 Bubut met together in the jungle and agreed to 

 disguise themselves with tatu marks, as their enemies 

 were over-plentiful and vigilant. The Bubut tatued 

 the Ruai in a very effective way, as the plumage of 

 the bird bears witness to this day, but the Ruai was 

 lazy and could not be bothered to tatu his friend in 

 return; so, crying out that his enemies were approach- 

 ing, he picked up the vessel containing the tatu-pigment, 

 poured it over the Bubut's head, and then hastily 

 decamped ; to this base treatment the Bubut owes its 

 peculiar colouring. 



The nest is a large, untidy structure, of loosely 



open spaces of cleared land, and is seldom met with in the 

 forest. E. B. P. 



