112 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



think, than in BracJiyurus moluccensis. The toes and claws are 

 very much on the model of this latter bird, but the tarsi are 

 doubtless conspicuously shorter. The bill is longer and more 

 compressed than in most of the Pitta; but, excepting the notch, 

 it is almost a miniature of that of Brachyurus megarhynchus, 

 except that the culmen of this latter is straighter and less 

 arched than in our present species. The bird clearly belongs 

 to a distinct genus, but I myself entertain no doubt that it 

 must be included in the Pitt/da. 



We have attempted to convey a feeble idea of this remarkable 

 bird in the accompanying plate, but we shall require a couple of 

 years' practice before we can turn out much in the way of pictures. 



351 bis.— Cyanocincla solitaria, Mull. 



Following Mr. Sharpe, I, for the present, identify the birds 

 from Thayetmyo with the Eastern Blue Rock-Thrush ; but I am 

 myself by no means satisfied with the explanation of the changes 

 of plumage in this species afforded in the " Birds of Europe." 

 Mr. Sharpens conclusion is that there are two distinct species, one 

 of which, the Eastern one, at one stage of its existence exhibits 

 more or less of deep chestnut coloring on its lower surface, which 

 it entirely loses when fully adult. My own view, I confess, is 

 that there is only one true species, but that many of the mem- 

 bers of this species, whose habitat is eastern, exhibit more or less 

 of this ferruginous tinge as an individual peculiarity; that, 

 broadly speaking, the further east and south-east you go the more 

 the rufous exhibited, and the greater the proportion of individuals 

 that exhibit it ; but still in all localities some individuals remain 

 true to the type, showing no rufous at any stage of their existence. 



If this view be not admitted, then we must say that there are 

 two species — a Western, which extends, though sparingly, to the 

 extreme east ; an Eastern, confined to the east ; and throughout 

 the tract of country in which the western overlaps the eastern, an 

 inter-breeding of the two, producing hybrids with every degree 

 of rufous in their plumage from one single feather up to the full 

 amount of the Hainan birds, which are the most rufous that I 

 have seen. 



First, I would premise that I have examined some hundreds 

 of these birds shot in all parts of India. I have now before me 

 twenty-five males in more or less of the blue plumage from the 

 Khelat Hills, various localities in Sindh, Muscat, Ladakh, hills 

 near Simla, near Mussoorie, Almorah, from Mount Aboo, the 

 Sambhur Lake, from Goorgaon, Mynpoorie, Etawah, Saugor, 

 the Nilghiris, and Coimbatore, and not one of these or of any 

 that I have examined from any locality, except Eastern Bengal, 

 exhibits or exhibited the faintest trace of rufous. I have one 

 male from Dacca, exhibiting a faint ferruginous tinge on the 



