100 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



pitta bustles along the edge of the jungle rousing all the 

 sleepy heads with sharp interrogative whistles before 

 there is the least paling of the Eastern sky. He scents the 

 sun as the ghost of Hamlet's father the morning air. His 

 version of " Sleepers, wake," echoes in the silence in sharp, 

 staccato notes. Seldom heard during the heat of the day, 

 they are oft repeated at dusk and late in the evening. Of 

 all the birds of the day his voice is the last as well as the 

 first, and from that the natives derive his name, " Wung- 

 go-bah." 



As the dawn hastens a subdued fugue of chirps and 

 whistles, soft, continuous and quite distinct from the cheer- 

 ful individual notes and calls with which the glare is greeted, 

 completes a circle of sounds. Wheresoever he stands the 

 listener is in the centre of ripples of melody which blend 

 with the silence almost as speedily as the half lights flee 

 before the pompous rays of the imperial sun. This charm- 

 ing melody is but a general exclamation of pleasure on the 

 recovery of the day from the apprehension of the night, a 

 mutual recognition, an interchange of matutinal compli- 

 ments. Those who take part in it may be jealous rivals in 

 a few minutes, but the first impulse of each new day is a 

 universal paean, not loud and vaunting, but mellow, sweet 

 and unselfish. 



The Megapode 



The cackle and call of the scrub fowl {Megapodius duper- 

 reft)a.re nocturnal as well as sounds of the day, being repeated 

 at intervals all through the night. Rarely venturing out of 

 the shades of the jungle, the eyesight of this bird is, no 

 doubt, specially adjusted to darkness and subdued lights, 

 and is thus enabled to detect and prey upon insects which 

 during the day lurk under leaves and decayed v/ood, or 

 bury themselves in the surface of the ever moist soil 

 Astonishment is excited that there can by any possibility 

 be any grubs or beetles, centipedes and worms, scorpions 

 and spiders left to perpetuate their species, when the floor 



