388 I'TTTID^F. 



brown ; wing-coverts tipped broadly with fulvous and with a subter- 

 minal black bar on both webs ; tertiaries and tail rather duller than 

 the back ; primaries brown, broadly tipped paler ; a large fulvous 

 patch at the base of each feather ; secondaries brown, edged with the 

 colour of the back ; chin and middle of the throat white ; sides of 

 the throat fulvous, the feathers margined with black ; remainder of 

 lower plumage fulvous ; the feathers of the breast very narrowly 

 and indistinctly margined with black, and some of them with black 

 spots ; the feathers of the sides of the body and flanks distinctly 

 spotted near the tip of both webs ; under tail-coverts pink. 



Female. Differs in wanting the black coronal streak and the black 

 on the nape and hind neck, this colour being replaced by the colour 

 of the back, but rather darker ; the feathers of the forehead and 

 crown margined with black ; also differs in having the breast more, 

 marked with black and the spots on the sides of the body larger. 



Male : bill dark horny ; iris nut-brown ; legs and feet dirty flesh- 

 colour blotched with brown. Female : bill horny ; iris dark brown ; 

 legs, feet, and claws fleshy white (Bingham). 



Length about 9 inches ; tail 2-3 ; wing 3-0 ; tarsus 1-25 ; bill 

 from gape 1*5. 



Fig. 106. — Head of A. phayrii. 



. Distribution. Burma east of the Sittoung river from the Karen 

 hills east of Toungngoo to the valley of the Thoungyeen river. 



Babits, Sfc. Bingham found a nest of this Pitta in Tenasserim in 

 April. It was an oven-shaped structure on the ground at the root 

 of a tree and was composed of leaves, roots, and grass, with a small 

 platform of twigs leading up to the entrance, which was at the side. 

 The nest contained four eggs, which were white marked with purple 

 and black and measured about 1-09 by *80. 



Genus PITTA, Vieill, 1816. 



The genus Pitta contains those Pittas which have no aigrettes of 

 pointed feathers, and which have a shorter and broader bill than 

 Anthocincla. The tail-feathers of the birds of this genus vary 

 considerably in shape, in some being broad and rounded, and in 

 others narrow and pointed. 



