728 PITTA 



posed to be allied to the Turdidse, and some English writers applied 

 to them the names of " Ground-Thrushes " (page 388), "Water- 

 Thrushes" and "Ant -Thrushes" (page 20), to the first of which 

 the group has some prescriptive right ; but the second and third 

 are misapplied since there is no evidence of their having aquatic 

 habits, or of their preying especially upon ants. The fact that they 

 had nothing to do with THRUSHES, but formed a separate Family, 

 was gradually admitted. In 1847 Prof. Cabanis {Arch. f. Naturg. 

 xiii. 2, i. p. 216) placed them under the Clamatores, and their 

 position was at last determined by Garrod, who, having obtained 

 examples for dissection, proved (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, pp. 512, 513) 

 that the Pittidx belonged to that section of Passerine Birds which 

 he named Mesomyodi. This in itself was an unexpected de- 

 termination, for all the other birds of the group, as then known, 

 inhabit the New World, where no Pittas occur. But it is borne 

 out by, and may even serve to explain, the sporadic distribution of 

 the latter, which seems to indicate them to be survivors of a some- 

 what ancient and lower type of Fasseres. Indeed except on some 

 theory of this kind the distribution of the Pittas is almost inex- 

 plicable. They form a very homogeneous Family, most of its 

 members bearing an unmistakable resemblance to each other — 

 though the species inhabit countries so far apart as Angola and 

 China, India and Australia ; and, to judge from the little that has 

 been recorded, they are all of terrestrial habit, while their power of 

 flight, owing to their short Avings, is feeble. In 1888 Mr. Sclater 

 (Cat B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 411-449) recognized 4 genera. They are 

 Anthocinda with a single species from Tenasserim, remarkable for 

 the tuft of elongated feathers on each side of its nape ; Pitta with 43 

 species (to which by now more than one has to be added) of wide 

 distribution ; Eucichla with 5 species, all from the Indo-Malay 

 countries; and " Me/ampito " (Schlegel),^ with a single species from 

 New Guinea, which after all may not belong to the Family. Most 

 of the true Pittas are from the Malay archipelago, between the 

 eastern and western divisions of which they are pretty equally 

 divided ; and, in Mr. Wallace's opinion, they attain their maximum 

 of beauty and variety in Borneo and Sumatra, from the latter of 

 which islands comes the species, Pitta elegans, here represented. 

 Few Birds can vie with the Pittas in brightly-contrasted coloration. 

 Deep velvety black, pure white, and intensely vivid scarlet, tur- 

 quoise-blue and beryl-green — mostly occupying a considerable 

 extent of surface — are found in a great many of the species, — to 

 say nothing of other composite or intermediate hues ; and, though 



^ Objection has been taken to this name, which is quite correct in form 

 (witness Melampus), and Mellopiita (Stejneger, Staml. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 466), Coraco- 

 pitta (Sclater, ut supr. p. 449) and Coracocichla (Sharpe, op. cit. xvii. p. 7) have 

 been proposed in its stead. 



