324 ON THE GENUS PITTA. 



bamboos being hid in the ground, and they are only perceived after the foot 

 is wounded. Even with my European boots I could not stand these 

 bamboos ; and all my hunters were wounded in such a way that I was 

 obliged at last to leave the ground for this reason, happily not without 

 having procured a series of ornithological treasures, among which I only 

 mention here some new species since described by myself as Todopsis 

 mysorensisj Monarcha kordensis, Dicceum geelvinkianum, Zosterops mysorensis, 

 Myiolestes melanorhynchus^ Myzomela rubrobrunnea, Rhipidura kordensis, and 

 others/' 



PITTA CiERULEITORQUES (Salvadori). 

 (Plate LXIV.) 



This is a very rare bird, belonging to the Sangi group ; at present^ 

 besides the male and female in my collection, here figured, I know of only 

 one other specimen, which is in the Museum at Genoa. 



Looking at the map, one would not imagine that the large island of 

 Sangi (in which name the g is sounded sharp ; and, as may be seen, I follow 

 the spelling of Dr. Meyer, and not of our English maps and authors) is 

 surrounded by about forty-six smaller ones, some of which are inhabited. 

 These islands are situated in the sea of Celebes, opposite Borneo. Sangi, 

 the large one, is about thirty miles long by ten miles broad, of course 

 volcanic, and up to the present time not very well known. Dr. Meyer 

 beheld a very fatal eruption while in those parts, the account of which I 

 give in his own words : — 



'' 1 witnessed, in the year 1871, on the island of Ruang, near Tagulanda 

 (both of which lie between the north point of Celebes and Siao), a dreadful 

 eruption of a volcano. Ruang, indeed, is nothing more than one volcanic 

 pile, which rises conically from the sea. Tagulanda is separated from it by 



