Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Pittidse. 



411 



locality possess equally strong bills, it hardly seems sufficient 

 to justify the elevation of the present specimen to specific rank. 

 Its habitat is supposed to be New Guinea, it having been received 

 with some other birds said to come from that country. I give 

 figures of the heads of P. mackloli (fig. 1) and P. stremia (fig. 2), 

 so that the variation in the bills can be seen at once without 

 difficulty. 



-'^/^//^ 



Pitta digglesi, Kreft, Ibis, 1869, p. 349. 



This bird was named by Mr. Gerard Kreft, as above cited ; 

 and the specimen was said to come from Cape York. Since 

 that communication was published, many examples have been 

 received from the same locality, and the bird has been figured 

 by Mr. Gould in the ' Suppleiuent^ to his 'Birds of Australia.' 

 It is in no way difi'erent from P. mackloti {vide supra, p. 119). 



Pitta bankana, Schlegel, Vog. Nederl. Ind. pi. 2. fig. 5. 



This bird, from the island of Banka, as remarked by its de- 

 scriber, is almost identical with P. sordida (P. L. S. Miill.) ; 

 but it is not quite so deep in colour, and the feathers of the 

 forehead and top of the head are tipped with a dark chestnut, 

 which I have never seen in any examples of P. atricapilla, auctt., 

 P. cucullata being the only one of the black-headed Pittas which 

 has a brown crown. This species belongs to the sixth group of 

 my work, with the subgeneric title of Melanopitta, and is re- 

 presented in the accompanying plate (PI. XIII., fig. 2). 



Pitta sanghirana, Schlegel, Ned. Tijd. Dierk. 1866, p. 190. 



This bird is P. atricapilla, auctt., from Sanghir. Dr. Schlegel 

 distinguishes it only by the green being darker and less bright, 

 and the shoulders and rump being of a darker blue and less 



