iii [Vol. x. 



Of the ten specimens mentioned above, Mr. Rothschild 

 has three males and one female alive. The other six died, 

 and a stuffed male and female were exhibited. Mr. Roth- 

 schild hoped to secure one more female, which had been 

 mounted, but the remaining two males and one female had 

 been destroyed. 



The habitat of the species was still unknown. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild also exhibited specimens 

 of all the species of Pitta belonging to the red-bellied 

 section " g " of that genus in the ' Catalogue of Birds/ 

 excepting P. c&rulei torques, which he did not possess. He 

 observed : — 



" Of all these forms, Pitta rubrinucha by its red nape, 

 P. kochi by its large size, and P. dohertyi by its broad black 

 pectoral collar and black ring round the neck, are the most 

 distinct. 



" The best known and the most widely distributed is 

 probably P. mackloti, which inhabits nearly the whole 

 of New Guinea, Waigiu, Salwatti, Mysol, and — according 

 to Salvadori, Sclater, and others — also the Aru Islands, 

 Cape York, New Britain, and the Key Islands. From the 

 latter locality Count Salvadori had no adult specimens when 

 he wrote his great work ; but I have now a fine series, and 

 find that the species is not P. mackloti, but as different 

 as many of the other forms of this group. In Pitta 

 kuehni — as I propose to name the form inhabiting the Key 

 Islands and Koer — the blue of the chest extends over 

 the sides of the chest and breast (where there is a green 

 patch in P. mackloti) and is continued in a narrow blue 

 ring round the upper back. The feathers on the sides of 

 the chest appear to be somewhat more elongated than in 

 P. mackloti. Adult birds have some blue on the crown — a 

 character which is rather rare in P. mackloti. 



"Pitta finschi, described by Ramsay from the Astrolabe 

 Range, is the Pitta of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands ; and 

 Elliot is quite wrong in placing P. finschi as a synonym of 

 P. cyanonota from Ternate. The latter has the head reddish 



