VII 



PITTIDAE 469 



surface, black and blue head and wings, yellow face and throat, 

 and blue tail becoming black below. Serilophus contains two 

 grey-brown species with chestnut rumps, ranging from Sikkim to 

 Tenasserim. Sarcopkanops is peculiar to the Philippines. 



The quiet and solitary Broad-bills inhabit forests, thickets, and 

 gardens, flying little, sitting sluggishly on the branches, taking 

 insects on the wing, and uttering whistling or metallic notes. 

 They make large roughish; oval .nests, with a large entrance near 

 the top often protected by an overhanging roof, while a sort of tail 

 is commonly added ; these are suspended from low branches or 

 plants close to water; the materials being twigs, roots, tendrils, moss, 

 or leaves, felted together and smoothly lined with green foliage, 

 flags, bamboo - spathes, or grass, sometimes renewed when dry. 

 From three to five eggs are laid, pale yellowish in Calyptomena, 

 white or rarely spotted with red in Psarisomus, and pinkish, buff or 

 white elsewhere, with markings varying from black to rufous. 



B. Clamatores. 



This group includes the Pittidae t Philepittidae,Xenicidae, Tyran- 

 nidae, Oxyrhamphidae^ipridae, Cotingidae, Phytotomidae, Dendro- 

 colaptidae, Formicariidae, Conopopliagidae, and PteroptocJiidae. 



Apparently the furcula is U-shaped; the tongue varies; the 

 aftershaft is small, if present ; the down is sparing or absent. 



Fam. I. Pittidae. The members of this Old "World Family, 

 nearly fifty in number, range from India to North China, East 

 Australia, New Guinea, and New Britain; while one species is West 

 African. They are stout, strong-billed forms, with short rounded 

 wings and tail, the long metatarsus being more or less scute! lated 

 all round ; the primaries number ten the outer being decidedly 

 long the secondaries eight, the rectrices twelve. The plumage 

 exhibits vivid scarlet, blue, and green tints, in addition to yellow, 

 purple, black, brown, and white; elongated neck-feathers occur 

 in Anthocincla, erect frontal plumes in Coracopitta. The tail in 

 Pitta is nearly square, but is pointed in EucicJila and Coracopitta. 

 The habits seem to be fairly uniform, all the species haunting 

 thickish jungle or dense scrub, whether in the rock-strewn glens 

 of India, or the damp Malayan, Australian, and Papuasian forests. 

 The birds are more often heard than seen, though the plaintive, 

 oft-repeated double whistle of the smaller forms, or the mournful, 

 triple cry of the larger, is seldom audible in the mid-day heat, 



