110 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



their coverts, which are black, have an angular fulvous spot at 

 the base of the first primary ; tertiaries, plain brown, like the 

 back ; but the coverts of the secondaries, black, with broad fulvous 

 sagittate tips ; bill, dusky; and feet and claws, pale." Obtained 

 by Colonel Phayre at Tonghoo (Journal, Asiatic Society, 

 1862, Vol. XXXI, p. 343). 



Now, this description and these remarks fail, I think, to convey 

 an adequate idea of this very handsome, though not gaudily, 

 attired Ground-Thrush. 



Mr. Blyth never saw the bird alive, and the type, which, till 

 we obtained others, was perhaps unique, is and always must have 

 been an indifferent specimen. The consequence was that 

 Mr. Blyth was unable to notice the two perhaps most character- 

 istic features in the bird. The first are the wonderful aigrettes, if 

 I may so call them, projecting fully an inch backwards behind the 

 occiput, giving the head a most remarkable appearance ; and 

 secondly, the red tint on the lower tail coverts, indicating the 

 close affinity of the bird to the other Pittce, for no one who 

 sees the bird alive or even sees a really good specimen can doubt 

 that this is essentially a Pitta. Its habits, its manner of holding 

 itself, its haunts, are all those of the Pittce, and, different as 

 they are in coloring, the Burmese have but one name for this 

 and cganeus. The following are the dimensions in the flesh and 

 description of a fine adult male : — 



Length, 8 - 82 ; expanse, 13*75; tail, from vent, 2*5 ; wing, 

 4*12 ; tarsus, 1*25 ; bill, from gape, 1*4 ; weight, 3 ozs. The legs, 

 feet, and claws are dark fleshy; the bill, black, only the lower 

 mandible reddish brown towards the gape ; the irides are deep 

 brown. 



A velvet black stripe from the base of the culmen running 

 backwards over the centre of the crown and occiput to the 

 nape, where it widens out and covers the whole nape. The upper 

 part of the lores, the sides of the forehead, ci'own and occiput 

 on either side of the black streak, warm rufescent buff, each 

 feather very narrowly margined with black and with a black 

 spot on each web, forming a more or less perfect bar towards the 

 bases of the feathers, of which but little is seen till the feathers 

 are lifted ; the lower part of the lores, a streak under the eye, 

 and the ear coverts, black ; the [feathers, mostly rufous-shafted, 

 and some of them a little streaked with rufous. From the pos- 

 terior angle of the eye, between the dark ear coverts and the buffy 

 black-margined feathers of the forehead, crown, sides, and 

 occiput, a white stripe runs backwards, the later feathers of 

 which, springing from either side of the nape, are much elonga- 

 ted and sharply pointed ; the whole of these feathers exhibit 

 more or less perfect black bars on each web. It is the terminal 

 sharp-pointed feathers that stick out behind the head something 



