THE LESSER BLUE-WINGED PITTA. 
415 
This species is probably migratoiy^ for I have observed it only from 
April to July or August, and Mr. Davison procured it in Tenasserim from 
April to July. He found the nest at Amherst in the latter months it 
contained four eggs. Both the nest and eggs^ judging from Mr. Davison^s 
description,, resemble those of the next species, and the same is the case 
with the habits of the two birds. 
386. PITTA MOLUCCENSIS. 
THE LESSER BLUE-WINGED PITTA. 
Pitta moluccensis, P. L. S. Miill. Nat. Syst. p. 144 ; Oates, *S'. i^. v. p. 149 ; Hume 
8^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 240 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 94. Pitta cyanoptera, Temm, 
PI. Col. 218. Brachyurus cyanopterus, Elliot, Mon. Pitt. pi. iv. Brachy- 
urus moluccensis, Elliot, Ibis, 1870, p. 413; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 106 j £1. 
Wald. B. Burm. p. 98. 
Description. — Male and female. Top of the head from the nostrils to the 
nape fulvous-brown ; lores^ cheeks^ ear-coverts, a stripe over the eye and 
a broad band round the back of the head black ; a dark-brown stripe 
over the head from the forehead to the nape ; back, scapulars and tertials 
dull green rump, upper tail-coverts and the smaller upper wing-coverts 
bright ultramarine-blue ; chin immediately near the bill blackish^ remainder 
of chin and throat white ; breast^ belly and flanks ruddy buff ; a broad , 
stripe down the abdomen ; the vent and the under tail-coverts bright red j 
tail black_, tipped with dull blue j primaries black, each feather with a large 
patch of white, mesial on the first, but approaching more and more the tip of 
the feather as the interior of the wing is reached ; secondaries black edged 
with dull blue on the terminal half ; tertiaries black, tipped and margined 
with bluish green ; larger wing- coverts dull green, edged with bright blue; 
under wing-coverts black. 
Young birds have the coronal streak broader and the feathers of the 
crown are narrowly margined with black ; the wing-coverts are dull blue, 
and the colours of the other parts of the body less bright than in the 
adult. 
Iris dark brown ; eyelid and ocular region plumbeous ; bill black ; inside 
of mouth flesh-colour ; legs fleshy pink; claws horn-colour. 
Length 8 inches, tail I '6, wing 4*9, tarsus 1*7, bill from gape 1-2. The 
female is of much the same size. 
The Lesser Blue-winged Pitta has a wide distribution. It occurs in 
every part of Pegu ; also in Arrakan, where my men got specimens ; and 
Mr. Davison appears to have procured it in many places in Tenasserim. 
It occurs in Siam and Cochin China, the Malay peninsula^ Sumatra^ 
