-PITTA 729 
in some a modification of these tints is observable, there is scarcely 
a trace of any blending of shade, each patch of colour standing out 
“ee Tf 
distinctly. This is perhaps the more remarkable as the feathers 
PITTA ELEGANS, male and female. (After Schlegel.) 
have hardly any lustre to heighten the effect produced, and in 
some species the brightest colours are exhibited by the plumage of 
the lower parts of the body. Pittas vary in size from that of a Jay 
to that of a Lark, and generally have a strong bill, a thickset form, 
which is mounted on rather high legs with scutellated “ tarsi,” and 
a very short tail. In many of the forms there is little or no ex- 
ternal difference between the sexes.! 
Placed by some authorities among the Pittidx is the genus Phile- 
pitta, consisting of two species peculiar to Madagascar, while other 
systematists would consider it to form a distinct Family. This last 
was the conclusion, the propriety of which can hardly be questioned, 
arrived at by W. A. Forbes (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, pp. 387-391), 
from its syringeal characters, which, though shewing it to be allied 
to the Pittas, are yet sufficiently different to justify its separation 
as the type of a Family Philepittidey. The two species which com- 
pose it have little outward resemblance to the Pittas, not having 
1 All the species then known were figured in Mr. Elliot’s Monograph of the 
Pittide, completed in 1863; but so many have since been described, that 
he is now bringing out a revised and enlarged edition of this work, as several of 
those lately discovered are figured only in Gould’s Birds of Asia and Birds of New 
Guinea. Mr. Sclater’s Catalogue above quoted will be found very useful. 
