PITTA. 287 



seen in the jungle) alive several days by feeding it on ants' eggs, 

 during which time it never uttered a sound ; but if it hopped on 

 to its perch there it would sit for ever so long with a vacant stare. 

 It had a black patch separating the crimson and green of the under- 

 parts, as noticed by Mr. E. Gates, ' Stray Feathers,' vol. iii. p. 109. 

 Unfortunately one morning the servant, while giving it its food, 

 let it get out, and I never even had a glance of it to shoot it for 

 skinning." 



Mr. W. Davison records the following note : " On the 12th of 

 July, 1875, I found a nest of the Green-breasted Thrush at Am- 

 herst in Tenasserim. 



" The nest was in rather thick tree- jungle at the base of the 

 hills, placed on the ground at the root of a small tree and partially 

 hid from view by grass. It was composed of dry twigs and leaves, 

 resting on a thick foundation of dead leaves and lined with fibres, 

 It was a globular structure, with a circular opening about midway 

 on one side ; the roof of the nest projected over the entrance about 

 2'5 inches, forming a canopy or portico over it. It was very 

 loosely put together, at least the outer portions of it, and measured 

 10 inches in diameter by 9*5 in height ; the entrance having a 

 diameter of 3-5 inches. At the base of the entrance was a plat- 

 form composed of twigs and loosely put together, and about 4 

 inches wide, which sloped gradually to the level of the surrounding 

 ground, the top of the platform being nearly on the same level as 

 the bottom of the egg-cavity. The nest contained four eggs very 

 much incubated." 



The eggs are of the true Pitta type ; broad ovals with a spherical 

 tendency (not so strongly marked, however, as in P. brachyurd), 

 glossy, and with a pure white or creamy-white ground, more or 

 less thickly speckled, spotted, and marked with small angular, at 

 times hieroglyphic-like, blotches, streaks, or lines of purple, redder, 

 or again more lilac, in some, or deeper and more chocolate in others. 

 The markings, always apparently most dense at the larger end, are 

 occasionally almost entirely confluent, and often form there an 

 irregular speckly spotty cap. At the small end the markings seem 

 to be always fewer and smaller, and in some eggs are almost 

 wholly wanting. 



In length the eggs vary from 1*04 to 1*1, and in breadth from 

 0-82 to 0-86. 



