PITTA COEONATA. 691 



when the birds begin to answer one another. Mr. Ball says that when uttering the wheet (or, as the Singhalese 

 render it, avtt) the head is drawn back as far as possible and then jerked forward again as the bird concludes 

 with the pe-ii. He has heard it (in the breeding-season I conclude) utter a sweet Thrush-like song 

 resembling that of the Shdma. 



Though very shy and wary it is possessed of considerable inquisitiveness. While standing still under 

 the shelter of dense jungle I have not unfrequently had it approach me within- a few yards, flitting from the 

 ground to a low branch and quietly scanning me with its bright eye, its head cocked on one side and its tail 

 erect. While I remained motionless it would continue to scrutinize me, but on the least stir it would dart 

 off into the surrounding cover. 



When it first arrives it wanders into strange places — gardens, compounds, and even houses. Jerdon 

 writes of capturing one in the General Hospital, Madras. My friend Mr. Forbes Laurie related to me that 

 one night, on returning from dining at a friend's, he found one running about among the flowers in his 

 garden at Tunisgala ; on bringing a lamp upon the scene he easily caught it. Mr. Bligh, too, informs me 

 that they are frequently caught on coffee-estates in the bungalows on cold stormy days, and that one so 

 captured in his district lived for many weeks, chiefly on worms ; it was kept in a lumber-room with only a 

 small window in it and seemed quite happy, standing a good deal on one leg and nervously moving its tail 

 up and down. He tells me that they come some distance to roost, as they are fond of bushy trees like the 

 lime and orange, which are not plentiful on the coffee-estates ; and he has seen them making their way across 

 a coffee-plantation by short flights or stages. 



It feeds entirely on the ground, picking up beetles, termites, ants, and other insects which it finds in 

 the soil and among dead leaves, its bill being usually covered more or less with earth when it is shot. Layard 

 says that it resorts to the same ant-hill for days together. 



I have already referred, in my article on Turdus spiloptera, to a Singhalese legend connected with the 

 Pitta ; and Mr. Parker sends me the following as bearing on its name {Ayitta) in the North-west Province : — 

 " It is said that this bird once possessed the Peacock's plumes ; but one day when he was bathing the Peacock 

 stole his dress ; ever since that he has gone about the jungle calling for them, ' Ayittam, ayittam ' (my 

 dress, my" dress) . 



" Another legend is that the Pitta was formerly a prince who was deeply in love with a beautiful 

 princess. His father sent him to travel for some years, as was in olden times the custom with princes here. 

 When he returned the princess was dead, and the unfortunate prince wandered disconsolately about, continually 

 calling her by name, ' Ayitta, Ayitta.' Out of pity to him, the gods transformed him into this bird." 



There is something peculiar, in fact startling, in this bird's curious cry, proceeding from dense thickets, 

 where it cannot itself be seen; and this fact, combined with its beautiful plumage and its sudden appearance 

 in the island as a migrant, which is not intelligible to the untutored native mind, has naturally made it the 

 subject of legends with the Singhalese. 



Nidification. — In the Central Provinces of India this Pitta breeds in July and August, according to 

 Mr. Blewitt, who has taken numbers of its eggs. The nests are described by Mr. Hume as " large globular 

 structures, fully 9 inches in horizontal diameter and 6 inches high, with a circular opening on one side ; they 

 are composed internally of fine twigs, notably of the tamarisk, and grass-roots ; externally of dry leaves, many 

 of them ' skeletons,' held in their places by a few roots or twigs. The internal cavity may be about 4 inches 

 in diameter. The nests are placed in brushwood and scrub-jungle, either on the ground or on low branches 

 close to it." 



" Few Indian eggs are," says the same author, " more beautiful than those of this species. In shape 

 they are excessively broad and regular ovals ; they are excessively glossy ; the ground-colour is china-white, 

 sometimes faintly tinged with pink, sometimes creamy, speckled and spotted, and sometimes also painted, with 

 fine hair-like lines of deep maroon, dark purple, and brownish purple as primary markings, and pale inky 

 purple as secondary ones. The primary markings are scattered, in some instances pretty thickly, in others very 

 sparingly, over the whole surface of the egg, but are always much denser towards one end, to which in 

 some eggs they are entirely confined ; and here alone the secondary markings are at all conspicuous .... 

 I should note that there is one not uncommon type in which the whole egg is devoid of markings, except 



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