PITTA SCHWANERI, aw 



Schwaner's Pitta. 



Pitta Schwaneri, Temm. in Leyden Museum.— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. p. 256.— Id. Consp. Voluc. Anisod. 

 1854, p. 7, no. 200.— Elliot, Mon. of Pittidse, pi. xxx. 



Of the three nearly allied species Pitta cyanura, P. Boschi, and P. Schwaneri, the last-mentioned bird is 

 the rarest. In point of beauty it is just intermediate between the two others ; for while it wants the fiery 

 and blue chest-markings of P. Boschi, it excels the P. cyanura in the rich blue of the centre of its abdomen. 

 The native country of this fine bird is the island of Borneo ; and this, I regret to say, is all that is known 

 respecting it. The accompanying Plate illustrates both sexes as accurately as may be ; but to do more than 

 approximate to the colouring of these birds is out of the question — their tints being lovely in the extreme, 

 and their iridescent hues so surpassingly beautiful as to be inimitable in a drawing. 



The male has the crown of the head, lores, a broad stripe from the base of the lower mandible, and 

 the occiput deep black, passing into rich blue where it joins the deep cinnamon-brown of the upper surface; 

 over each eye a broad stripe of the richest gamboge-yellow ; wing-coverts black, with a large oblong mark 

 of white at the tip of the outer web of each feather ; primaries and secondaries black ; two or three of the 

 central secondaries narrowly edged with white, within which is a tinge of blue near the tip ; chin white, 

 passing into rich gamboge-yellow below, and into a still richer tint of the same colour on the sides of the 

 neck ; below the throat-gorget, the breast and flanks are alternately barred with narrow bands of deep blue 

 and broader bands of gamboge-yellow terminating on the flanks in a conspicuous patch of fine yellow; 

 centre of the abdomen deep blue ; upper and under tail-coverts and tail rich deep blue, glossed with lighter 

 blue on the margins of the feathers. 



The female has the crown of the head, lores, and stripe through the eye dull black ; stripe over the eye 

 rich orange-yellow ; throat dull white, washed with orange, which deepens on the sides of the neck ; 

 primaries brown ; bands of the under surface more distinct, but of a much paler hue : in all other respects 

 very similar to the male. 



The Plate represents the two sexes, of the size of life. 



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