ON THE GENUS PITTA. 261 



signifies merely " bird "*. As the authority of the Professor of Sanscrit in 

 the University of Cambridge cannot be disputed, we may consider that 

 we know what Pitta means. 



As regards the generic name Brachyurus f , it was given, according to 

 Gray, by ThunbergJ in 1821, embracing " Paludicola of Mr. Hodgson 

 (1837), which name he changed to Heleornis in 1844." 



It seems, however, that Pitta and Brachyurus are strictly synonyms, and 

 that they have absolutely identical types ; therefore both cannot stand 

 as coequal genera. More than that, if Pitta had not priority, Brachyurus 

 was preoccupied in Mammalia by Fischer so early as 1814 ; at least, so says 

 Agassiz, in his ' Nomenclator.' 



Thunberg puts into his genus Brachyurus two other species, B. gularis 

 and B, ruher^ both, he says, from Brazil, where it is needless to remark that 

 there is no Pitta at all. 



We have: — Brachyurus, gen. no v., Thunberg, Kongl. Vetenskaps 

 Akademiens Handlingar, 1821, p. 370. 



The type given is ''Tardus triosteffus/' Sparrman, Museum Carlsonianum, 

 iv. tab, 84 (l789^ = Corvus brachyurus^ Linn. Syst. Nat. edit. 12, i. p. l68=Pitta 

 hengalensis, Vieill.^c?^ Sundevall, Kritisk Framstallning af Fogelarterna m. m. 

 p. 13 (1857). 



The paper just quoted is an attempt (and a very successful one) to 

 determine the species of birds figured in Sparrman's work and Levaillant's 

 ' Oiseaux d'Afrique,' and was published in the new series (Ny Fjold) of the 

 ' Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlindgar' ('Transactions of 

 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences '), vol. ii. no. 3. 



^ So ^'^ manu ^^ is the general name for a bird in various groups of islands south of the equator, 

 t Brachyurus : th. ppa')(y<^, shorty and ovpd, a?, r], the tail. 



% Carl Peter Thunberg^ the Swedish naturalist (or^ especially^ botanist)^ according to 

 Engelmann's 'Bibliotheca Zoologise/ died 1828. 



