728 PIETA 
posed to be allied to the Z'urdidx, 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. 2,1. 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 Pittide belonged to that section of Passerine Birds which 
he named Mesomyopi. ‘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 Passeres. 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 wings, is feeble. In 1888 Mr. Sclater 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. pp. 411-449) recognized 4 genera. They are 
Anthocincla 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 ; Hucichla with 5 species, all from the Indo-Malay 
countries ; and “ Melampitta” (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 
1 Objection has been taken to this name, which is quite correct in form 
(witness Afelampus), and Mellapitta (Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. p. 466), Coraco- 
pitta (Sclater, wt supr. p. 449) and Coracocichla (Sharpe, op. cit. xvii. p. 7) have 
been proposed in its stead, 
