MYIOTHERIN^. 501 



I have had its nest and eggs brought me ; the nest is a solid 

 mass of moss, mixed with earth and roots, of large size, and placed 

 (as I was informed) under an overhanging rock, near a mountain 

 stream. The eggs were three in number, and dull green, thickly- 

 overlaid with reddish specks. 



Hutton describes them as " greenish ashy, speckled with roseate 

 specks, confluent at the larger end;" further, he says, "it selects some 

 high, towering, and almost inaccessible rock, forming the side of a 

 deep glen, on the projecting edges of which it constructs its nest." 

 It is known both at Darjeeling and Simla as the Hill Blackbird ; the 

 real Blackbird, Merula boulboid, being ignored as such. 



Horsfield states that the food of Myiophonus cyaneus of Java con- 

 sists almost exclusively of berries. This is quite inconsistent with the 

 habits of the two Indian species of the genus, and is probably a 

 mistake. Nearly allied is the Black-billed M. coeruleits, Scopoli, 

 from China ; and M. fiavirostris, Horsf ., from Java. 



The next group consists of a remarkable series of birds, of bright 

 and gorgeous plumage, more so perhaps than any other of the 

 Dentirostres ; being mostly variegated with green, blue, and red. 

 They are all very similar in form, being long-legged and short-tailed 

 Thrushes, not very elegantly shaped ; and feeding on the ground 

 on Coleoptera, ants, and otjier insects. They composed the genus 

 Pitta of Vieillot and other authors, of which the following are the 

 characteristics : — 



Bill moderately long, strong, compressed, wider at the base ; tips 

 slightly hooked, and with a distinct notch ; culmen keeled, gently 

 curved ; nostrils lateral, placed in a fossa, half-covered by a mem- 

 brane; no rictal bristles ; wings moderate, short; tail very short, 

 even ; tarsus long, slender, almost entire, obscurely scutellated 

 posteriorly; feet moderate, middle toe long, laterals unequal, hind 

 toe short ; claws moderate and slightly curved. 



The birds of this genus take wing but seldom, and their flight is 

 weak and irregular. Three species are found within our limits ; but 

 as we go further eastward, through Burmah and the Malayan penin- 

 sula to the eastern islands, they incri-^ase both in number of species 

 and in brilliancy of plumage. They extend to Australia, three 

 species being found there. Several genera have been, of late, 

 founded out of the old ti;enus, Pitta. 



