296 NOVELTIES. 



the Southern bird, to which Mr. Hume refers, must be one of 

 the stages of the species that I have been considering : there is, 

 however, a Western species spoken of which lines its nest. If 

 such be the case, the Western bird must be distinct from the bird 

 distributed so commonly over the North- West and Bengal. Not 

 having any acquaintance with the Bombay bird I shall not say 

 any thing more about it. In uniting the two species under con- 

 sideration, I feel quite satisfied in my own mind as to the cor- 

 rectness of the conclusion, and would be glad if others would 

 take the subject up, and give us the result of their investigations. 



W. E. B. 



fobclttcs ? 

 Pitta Gurneyi, Sp. Nov. 



Crown and occiput lazuline blue ; forehead and sides of head 

 black; chin and upper throat white ; lower throat intense yellow ; 

 breast and abdomen velvet black. 



Resembles most that of cyanura, but wants the white wing bars and 

 blackish coronal streaks of that species. 



I dedicate this really lovely species, an inhabitant of the 

 most southern portions of the Tenasserim Provinces, to my 

 kind friend Mr. J. H. Griirney, well known to all ornithologists 

 as the first living authority where Raptoral birds are concerned. 



No more beautiful or interesting addition to our Indian 

 Avifauna has been made for many a long day, and its discovery 

 is one of the results of the systematic ornithological survey 

 , of the Tenasserim Provinces which for the past two years has 

 been vigorously prosecuted by my curator Mr. William 

 Davison and my whole staff. 



Though conspicuously different from any one of them, this new 

 species is most nearly allied to P. cyanura, Gmel., {guaianus, 

 P. L. S. Mull.), P. Schivaneri, Tem., and P. Boschi, B. Mull.— 

 (?elegans, Lesson). 



There is the same cuneiform blue tail, the same compara- 

 tively small bill, the same more or less rufous olivaceous 

 tipper surface, the same difference in the sexes, an orange 

 brown replacing on the head of the female, the more marked 

 colours of that portion of the male, and, lastly, the female 

 (though not the male) has the lower surface banded very 

 similarly to that of the female of P. cyanura. 



Of the habits and haunts of this and other species I shall 

 deal when presenting (as I hope to be able to do next year) 



