PITTA. 173 



vicinity of Oardwell. It frequents the thickets and densest parts 

 of the scrubs, and, were it not far its loud liquid call, would seldom 

 be found even when searched for. I know of no bird more elegant 

 and which trips over the fallen leaves and logs, or threads its way 

 throug the tangled masses of vegetation, with such grace and ease 

 as Pitta strepitans. The nest is a round dome-shaped structure, 

 having a large opening at the side, composed of roots, sticks, and 

 twigs, with a little moss, and lined with rootlets, mosses, and a 

 few feathers. It is usually placed upon the ground, but sometimes 

 a few inches from it, in the angle which the " spurs " make with 

 the stems of the trees, or some other suitable place. The eggs are 

 four in number, in length from 1-2 to 1-3 inch by 0-9 to 1 inch in 

 breadth. Their ground colour is of a delicate white, in some 

 specimens bluish-white, having elongated, irregularly-shaped spots 

 of brown and blackish-brown evenly dispersed over the whole 

 surface, with obsolete spots of bluish-grey, which are usually 

 largest on the thicker end of the egg. A second variety of the 

 egg of this bird, one of which is usually found in a set, is much 

 more elongated in form, and has the whole of the thick end freckled 

 with minute dots of bluish-grey, without any other markings save 

 here and there a small blackish dot. Length 1'6 inch ; breadth 

 0-9 inch." (Ramsay, Ibis, .1867, Vol. iii.. New Series, p. 414, pi. 

 viii., fig. 2.) 



Two eggs in the Australian Museum Collection measure as 

 follows :— length (A) 1'25 x 1-02 inch; (B) 1'23 x 0-98 inch. 



Hab. Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 

 Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales. 

 (Mamsay.) 



3 PITTA SIMILIMA, Gould, (subsp.) 



Gould,P.Z.S., 1868, p. 76. JE 8. 



" This northern variety of Pitta strepitans I found common 

 enough at the Herbert River, and scrubs near Card well. Some of the 

 specimens are deeper coloured and smaller even than any I have 



