m dd 
PITTA NYMPHA. 
FAIRY PITTA. 
Pitta nympha, Temm. $ Schleg. Faun. Jap., Aves, Suppl. 1850, t. A.—Wallace, Ibis, 1864, p. 105.—Sclat. 
Cat. B. vol. xiv. 1888, p. 425 (partim).—Seebohm, Ibis, 1892, pp. 87, 94 (Tsu-sima).— Whitehead, 
Ibis, 1893, p. 495. 
Brachyurus nympha, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. vol. i. 1850, p. 254.—Id. Consp. Voluc. Anisod. 1854, p. 7.— 
Elliot, Mon. Pitt. 1863, pl. viii.—Id. Ibis, 1870, p. 415. 
Pitta berte, Salvad. Atti Accad. Sc. Tor. vol. iii. 1863, p. 927.— Id. Ibis, 1871, p. 248.—Id. Ucc. Born. 1874, 
р. 237, pl. iii. —Elliot, Ibis, 1870, p. 409.—Sclat. Cat. B. vol. xiv. 1888, p. 425.—Sharpe, Ibis, 
1889, p. 441.— Everett, Journ. Str. Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc. no. 20, 1889, p. 147. 
Pitta oreas, Sharpe, Ibis, 1879, p. 263 (Borneo). 
Hasırar.—Tsu-sima Island, Japan (Jouy).— Borneo (Doria, Beccari). 
Top of head chestnut; narrow vertical stripe from culmen to nape, lores, and sides of head beneath the 
eyes, and neck behind, jet-black. Superciliaries from nostril to nape pale yellowish-buff, tinged with 
green on the nape. Back and greater wing-coverts shining grass-green. Lesser wing-coverts, rump, 
and upper tail-coverts glittering silvery-blue. Secondaries black, margined on outer webs near the 
tips with bluish-green; the tertials green for nearly one third their apical portion. Axillaries black ; 
white spot on inner web of 1st and 2nd primaries, and on both webs of 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Tail 
black, tipped with dark bluish-green. Chin black. "Throat and sides of neck white, with a yellowish 
tinge. — Underparts yellowish-white, with a strong tinge of green, darkest and most conspicuous on 
sides of breast and flanks. Middle of lower part of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, blood-red. 
Bill horn-colour ; feet and tarsi flesh-colour. Total length 63 inches, wing 5, tail 14, tarsus 13. 
Description and Plate taken from Jouy’s specimen from Tsu-sima Island, No. 114634 in the National 
Museum, Washington. 
For very many years this Pitta has only been known from a Japanese drawing 
reproduced by Schlegel and others. The author just named called it P. nympha їп his 
“Fauna Japonica,’ Z е. In 1864 Swinhoe described a Pitta from Formosa as P. oreas, 
similar to P. nympha but with a white chin ; and in 1873, Z е., he called the same bird 
from Chefoo P. nympha, although he remarks that the chin is white in his bird instead of 
black as in P. nympha. In 1874 Salvadori described a Pitta from Borneo as Р. berte and 
gave a figure of it in his book * Uccelli di Borneo.’ Judging from his description, and 
also from his plate (although the figure is badly drawn and coloured), in spite of the 
difficulty raised by the question of geographical distribution, P. berte appears to be the 
same as Р. nympha from Japan. It possesses the black chin and the same general 
coloration. Unfortunately the type is lost, and it will be impossible to decide the question 
by a comparison with it and Japanese specimens. 
There is a single specimen of Pitta in the British Museum collected by Sir W. Low at 
Lumbidan, Borneo, which Sharpe, /. c., has referred to P. oreas, Swinhoe. This example 
has a black chin, which is one of the characters that distinguishes P. nympha from its near 
allies; and the Lumbidan bird cannot therefore be the same as P. oreas, but, on the contrary, 
is probably P. nympha. Mr. Everett, l. c., thinks that P. berte and P. nympha are probably 
