INTRODUCTION. xxii 
small island of Guebéh on the east, and which properly belongs to the Papuan group. 
This is a singular fact, as the very distinct species, belonging to the same section of the 
Family, P. rufiventris occupies the intervening island of Halmahera. Bouru contains 
P. rubrinucha, Boano west of Ceram has P. coronata, while Ceram itself is not definitely 
known to have any species of Pitta within its limits. Banda, south of Ceram, contains 
P. vigorsi, which is also found on Timor-laut and Dammar to the east ; while on Matabello 
and Grand Key P. mackloti is met with. Of the Timor Group, Р. concinna is found on 
Lombock, Sumbawa, and Flores, and P. vigorsi is said to be a native of Lombock, but this 
is doubtful, while Timor and Samaow, off the south-west end of Timor, have P. coronata. 
The Papuan Group of islands next claim our attention; and first, Waigiou has two 
species, P. mackloti and P. atricapilla, Quoy & Gaim., and the latter is also found on Gazie, 
Batanta, Salwatti, Mysol, and at Andai, Dorey, Sorong, and Port Moresby on the island of 
New Guinea, while P. mackloti appears in Salwatti, on New Guinea at Andai, Dorey, 
Sorong, Port Moresby, Mt. Astrolabe, and on the Fly River, also in New Britain and New 
Ireland, south-east of New Guinea, as well as on Wokam and Wanumbai and Giabu-lengan 
of the Aru Group. In the three last-named islands P. atricapilla is also found. 
In the great Bay of Geelvink, New Guinea, P. rosenbergi is met with on the islands 
of Mysore and Korrido or Sook, and P. méfoorana on Méfoor. In British New Guinea at 
Exton Junction, at a height of 1200 feet, P. rubrinucha is found, far removed from its only 
other habitat the island of Bouru ; and on the Astrolabe range P. cyanonota, if the deter- 
mination of the specimen is correct, is met with—both being inexplicable distributions, as 
the latter is equally far removed from Ternate and Guebéh, its other habitats. On Su-a-u, 
an island off the south cape, P. отче is found. 
In Southern New Guinea, on the Fly and Kataw rivers, we find Р. strepitans, which 
extends its range among the islands in Flores Straits and into Eastern Australia as far south 
as the vieinity of Sydney. P. mackloti has been procured at Cape York; and in Northern 
Australia, at Port Essington, P. iris is found. 
In the Mantchurian Subregion of the eastern Palearctic Region we have, in the Japanese 
island of Tsu-sima, in the Straits of Corea, P. nympha, far removed from its only other known 
habitat, the island of Borneo. 
