330 ON THE GENUS PITTA. 



Pitta atricapilla sanghirana, without a word, with Pitta atricapilla from 

 Borneo, and therefore gives up his new species of 1866. 



Dr. Meyer remarks thus : — 



"Schlegel separated (in the year 1866) the Black-headed Pitta from 

 Sangi as Pitta atricapilla sanghirana ; but (1874) he mentioned it in his 

 ' Revue ' simply under the head of Pitta atricapilla. 



" Salvadori recently stated that the differences between Pitta sordida from 

 the PhiUppines and Pitta sanghirana from Sangi certainly are not important 

 ones ; and Schlegel before had said that the single difference is the somewhat 

 larger size of the latter. 



^' It therefore appears that Pitta sanghirana will perhaps not prove in 

 future to be a ^ good ' species ; but I believe, for the present, one has the 

 right to keep it provisionally separate. 



" The materials for the knowledge of this and the allied forms are very 

 poor up to this time, the Black-headed Pittas on the islands in question 

 generally being rare birds. Besides, no specimens are yet on record from 

 the island of Siao (between Sangi and Celebes), all those known from the 

 ' Sangi islands ' being from the great island ' Sangi.' (The exact locality of 

 the specimens in my hands is Tabukan, on the north-east coast of Great 

 Sangi.) Then, no specimens are known, as far as I am aware, from the 

 intermediate large island of Mindanao. I got, in 1872, specimens of Pitta 

 sordida only on Luzon and Negros, the south point of the last island being 

 in sight of North Mindanao. 



'^ It is to be hoped that these beautiful parts of the globe will soon be 

 visited by an ornithologist who will bring together what could be termed 

 ' complete ' collections of each of those islands ; they would afford the 

 materials for the highly valuable detailed study of geographical distribution, 

 and would, no doubt, clear up our knowledge with respect to variation 

 of species in consequence of insular separation. 



