QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 33 



Papua as the recent birth-place of the Australian 

 forms. 



WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF A FAMILY 



In maps 1 and 11 we have a highly coloured and 

 dense forest family, very broadly distributed along 

 three continents. 



The Blue-breasted Pitta is common to New 

 Guinea and Cape York Peninsula, keeping to the 

 hot- rich, vine-scrub, feeding on shell snails and 

 worms. 



The Rainbow — and Noisy Pittas have their dis- 

 tribution as in Map 10. 



The ant thrushes are a very old family judging 

 by their dissimilarity of colour in Australia and by 

 their isolation in West Africa. It is a little difficult 

 to link Africa with India, and get the continuity. 

 We have a similar case of a blue jay in Eastern 

 Asia being practically the same as the one in 

 Western Europe with no blue jay between. There 

 is also the case of the Bristle-Birds in Southern 

 Australia. Probably in all cases the original 

 stock disappeared leaving the blank and the arms. 

 The pittas in Australia are the latest extension 

 from their birth-place in New Guinea. 



Dense, hot, moist cane brakes are what the 

 family prefer, and the tangle is almost impene- 

 trable. 



There are some fifty known species of which we 



