V °g rH Elliot on the Genus Pitta. c| I 



ON THE GENUS PITTA VIEILLOT. 



BY D. G. ELLIOT. 



In 1S16 Vieillot instituted in his 'Analyse d'une nouvelle 

 Ornithologie elementaire,' p. 42, the genus Pitta for those birds 

 designated Bieve by BufFon. Pitta was defined as follows: 



"Breve, Pitta. Corvus, Linn. Gm. Lath. 



Bee robuste, un peii epais a la base, droit, convexe en dessus, comprime, 

 pointu; mandibule superieure echancree vers le bout; l'inferieure entiere, 

 egale. — Ailes longues. — Queue courte. 



Esp. Breve, Buff." 



Beside the character " Queue courte" he gives no other which 

 might not equally apply to the species in the other division of 

 the family which are at present included in the genus Eucichla. 

 '•'•Queue courte" is a relative term, as all the species of Pitta have 

 short tails in comparison to their size, although some have them 

 longer than others, and even all the members of Eucichla, the 

 so-called long-tailed species, are not equal in this respect, E. 

 ellioti and E. gurneyi having rectrices intermediate in length 

 between the very short-tailed species, of which P. brachyura 

 (Linn.) may be considered the type, and E. guaiana (Mall.), 

 which represents those with long tails, and is the type of its 

 genus. 



Vieillot cites the Breves of Buffon as those birds he intended 

 should be included in his genus. These are four in number, 

 three only of which, not all as stated by Sclater (Ibis, 1S77, p. 

 260), belong to the short-tailed group,, and one to the long- 

 tailed. They are the Merle des Philippines, pi. S9 (P. sordida 

 Mi'ill.), Merle des Moluques, pi. 257 {P. moluccensis Mull.), 

 Merle vert des Moluaues, pi. 258 (P. coronata Mull.), and 

 Merle de la Guiane, pi. 355 ( P. guaiana Mi'ill. ). 



Pitta Vieillot is therefore a composite genus, and an author 

 when dividing the family into different genera has a perfect right 

 to choose as the type for his division Pitta any of the species 

 among those included by Vieillot in his genus, when he had 

 made them all equal, and recognized no generic differences 

 among them, and placed both short- and long-tailed species in 

 one genus. 



