282 PITTID^E. 



The eggs are typically very perfect and broad ovals. The shell 

 is thin, tine, and glossy. The ground-colour is white, sometimes a 

 china-white, sometimes with a very faint creamy tinge. The markings, 

 which are specks and spots, and in some few eggs small smudges, 

 are as a rule pretty thickly set about the broad end, and very thinly 

 distributed (at times almost wanting) over the rest of the surface 

 of the egg ; but in one specimen the markings are thinly but pretty 

 evenly distributed over the whole egg, and in another it is at the 

 narrower and not the broader end that the majority of the markings 

 are clustered. As in all similar eggs, some specimens exhibit 

 many more markings than others. The markings are in two 

 colours the one varying in different eggs through dull red, pur- 

 plish red, maroon, and purplish maroon to almost black (and these 

 are alike most conspicuous and most numerous), and the other 

 varying through pale purple, pale inky purple, and purplish grey, 

 or rarely purplish brown (and these markings chiefly occur where 

 the others are numerous and more or less thickly set). 



In length the eggs vary from I'll to 1-3, and in breadth from 

 0*89 to 1*0 ; but the average of seventeen eggs is 1*19 by 0*97 

 nearly. 



Pitta cyanea, Blyth. The Blue Pitta. 

 Pitta cyanea, Blyth, Hume, Cat. no. 344 ter. 



Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim : " For some reason 

 or other, Pittas were excessively plentiful this year at Kaukarit. 



" Of the above species I found two nests with eggs, and four 

 with young ones. Of these I only found one myself, the others 

 were marked down for me, and I went and saw them. 



" All the nests were of one type, globular masses of earth, leaves, 

 twigs, &c., bound together with vegetable fibre, and lined interiorly 

 with roots. One I measured was about 8 inches in diameter, and 

 about the same in height. In five, the entrance-hole was about 

 halfway up one side. In one the opening was close on to the 

 ground. The two nests with eggs were found respectively on the 

 23rd and 26th May, and contained, one four, and one five eggs. 

 These nine eggs are all of one type, ground-colour glossy white, 

 spotted, scratched, and streaked, especially at the large end, with 

 purple, and having also obscure purplish cloudy spots. They 

 measure 1-09 x 0-85, 1-07x0-85, 1-08x0-86, 1-05x0-82, 1-05 x 

 0-85, 1-09x0-86, 1-06x0-83, and 1-05x0-82." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, informs me that he extracted a fully- 

 formed egg from the oviduct of a female of this species at Tavoy. 



The eggs of this species are very like those of P. cucuttata. They 

 are broad ovals, not nearly so spherical as those of P. Iracliyura, 

 with a fair amount of gloss, but again by no means so glossy as 

 those of the species just referred to. The ground-colour varies 

 from white to creamy white, and they are pretty thickly marked 

 with small scratches, streaks, spots, lines, and blotches of a darker 

 and paler shade of purple the one varying from reddish purple 



