180 Bulletin of the British 



pectoral collar and black ring round the neck, are the most 

 distinct. 



" The best known and the most widely distributed is 

 probably P. mack/oti, which inhabits nearly the whole 

 of New Guinea, Waigiu, Salwatti, Mysol, and — according 

 to Salvadori, Sclater, and others — also the Aru Islands, 

 Cape York, New Britain, and the Key Islands. From the 

 last locality Count Salvadori had no adult specimens when 

 he wrote his great work ; but I have now a fine series, and 

 find that the species is not P. mackloti, but as different 

 as many of the other forms of this group. In Pitta 

 KUEHNi — as I propose to name the form inhabiting the 

 Key Islands and Koer — the blue of the chest extends over 

 the sides of the chest and breast (where there is a green 

 patch in P. mackloti) and is continued iu a narrow blue 

 ring round the upper back. The feathers on the sides ot" 

 the chest appear to be somewhat more elongated than in 

 p. mackloti. Adult birds have some blue on the crown — a 

 character which is rather rare in P. mackloti. 



" Pitta finschl, described by Ramsay from the Astrolabe 

 Range, is the Pitta of the D'Entrecasteanx Islands ; and 

 Elliot is quite wrong in placing P. fiiischi as a synonym of 

 P. cyanonota from Ternate. The latter has the head reddish 

 brown and the throat pale brown, while P. finschl is rightly 

 described by Ramsay as having the head dark reddish 

 chocolate-brown and the throat black, and the measurements 

 are much larger. The locality 'Astrolabe Range' is probably 

 wrong. 



"P. lorice, Salvad,, is another form which has hitherto been 

 very httle known. It differs from P. mackloti in its uniform 

 dark-brown head, nape, and hind-neck. It occurs near 

 Milne Bay, S.E. New Guinea, where it seems to replace the 

 common P. mackloti. The green-backed females of his 

 P. finschl mentioned by Ramsay, and considered by Finsch 

 to belong to P. mackloti, were most likely specimens of 

 P. lorice. 



"Pitta novce-hibernice from New Hanover and New Ire- 

 land has been wrongly confused Avith P, mackloti. 



