PITTA. 379 



936. Pitta cyanoptera, Temm., Pi. Col p. 218; Wallace, 



1864, pp. 105, 1 10 ; Sclater, Cat. B. Br* J/#.r. xiv, p. 420. Turdus mollnc- 

 censis, P. L. S. Mull, Nat. Syst. Suppl. p. 144. Pitta malaccensis, Blylh, 

 y. A. S. B. xii. p. 960. Brachytirus cyanopterus, Blyth, J, A. S. B. xvi. 

 p. 153; Elliot Monog. Pitt. pi, iv. Brachyurus moluccensis, Elliot ', Ibis, 

 1870, p. 413; Hume, Str. F. iii. p. 106; Blyth and Wald., B. Burmah, 

 p. 98; Sharpe, Ibis, 1877, p, lo. Pitta moluccensis, Swinh., P. Z. S. 1871, 

 p. 374; Oates, Str. F. v. p. 149; id., B. Br. Burm. i. p. 415 ; Hume and 

 Davison, Sir. F. vi. p. 240 ; id., Str. F. viii. p. 94. The LESSER BLUE- 

 WINGED PITTA. 



Top of the head brown, with a dark brown mesial vertical streak ; nape 

 brown, tinged with fulvous ; lores and sides of the head, meeting in a band 

 on the nape, black ; back, scapulars and tertials from dull to dark green ; 

 rump, lesser wing coverts, the upper tail coverts and edges of the secondaries 

 bright blue ; chin at the base of the bill blackish ; rest of chin and throat 

 white ; breast and under surface of the body deep fawn or ruddy buff, the 

 abdomen with a mesial broad crimson stripe. Vent and under tail coverts 

 crimson ; tail black, tipped with blue ; wings black, with a broad white bar 

 across ; under wing coverts black. Bill black ; feet brown 5 irides dark brown. 



Length. 7-5 to 8 inches; tail 1*5 to r6; wing 4-6 to 4^9 ; tarsus 1-5 to 

 1-7 ; bill from gape r2. 



Hab. Burmah, Siam, South China, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. It 

 occurs also in Arracan. It has been obtained in Tenasserim, Thayetmyo, 

 Pegu, and Rangoon. According to Oates this Pitta is a summer visitor to 

 Burmah, where it is abundantly distributed over the whole country from May to 

 July. Nesting operations begin soon after their arrival. The nest, Oates says, 

 is a huge structure composed of sticks, leaves and roots bound together with 

 earth. It is placed on the ground either in an open place or against the root 

 of a tree. The eggs, 46 in number, are white, marked with spots and 

 scrawls of purplish. 



937. Pitta megarhyncha, Scki, Voy. Ned. Ind. p. n, pi. 4, fig. 2 ; 



Hume and Dav., S/r. F. vi. p. 242 ; id., Str. F. viii. p. 94 ; Oates, B. Burm. \. 

 p. 416; Gould, B. Asia, v. pi. 70; Sclater, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. p. 421. 

 Brachyurus megarhynchus, Wald. in Bly.> B. Burm. p. 98 j Hume, Str. F. ii. 

 p. 475. The LONG-BILLED BLUE-WINGED PITTA. 



Very similar to Pitta cyanoptera, except that the top of the head is darker 

 brown, and the coronal streak nearly obsolete ; the bill is also longer, r6 inches 

 against 1*2 from gape, and the species larger, 9 lo 9-3 inches against 7*5 to 8 

 inches. 



Hab. Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula. Said to be resident in the 

 extreme south of Tenasserim, but there is no account of its nidification. 



