It was a pitta, a kind of ground thrush.
"Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines"
H. Wilfrid Walker
281 note pitta, Luca, ii.
"Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III."
John Symonds
The barred-shouldered dove, the spangled drongo, the noisy pitta, the red-crowned fruit pigeon, the pheasant-tailed pigeon, are less frequent visitors; and though the purple-breasted fruit pigeon-the most magnificent of all-talks to his mate in coarse gutturals from the trees above, he has not been seen actually drinking.
"Tropic Days"
E. J. Banfield