PHAYRE^S PITTA. 
421 
with a subterminal black bar on both webs j the tertiaries and tail rather 
duller than the back ; primaries brown^ broadly tipped paler ; a large 
fulvous patch at the base of each feather ; secondaries brown, edged with 
the colour of the back ; chin and centre of the throat white ; sides of the 
throat fulvous, the feathers margined with black ; remainder of lower 
plumage fulvous ; the feathers of the breast very narrowly and indistinctly 
margined with black, and some of them with black spots; the feathers of 
the sides of the body and flanks distinctly spotted near the tip of both 
webs ; under tail-coverts pink. 
l:\iQfemale difiers in wanting the black coronal streak and the black on 
the nape and hind neck, this colour being replaced by the colour of the 
back ; the feathers of the forehead and crown margined with black. She 
also differs from the male in having the breast more marked with black 
and the spots on the sides of the body larger. 
Male : bill dark horny ; iris nut-brown ; legs and feet dirty flesh-colour 
blotched with brown. Female : bill horny; iris dark brown ; legs, feet and 
claws fleshy white. (^Bingham, MS.) 
Male: length 8*7 inches, tail 2*3, wing 3'95, tarsus 1'25, bill from 
gape 1-5. Female: length 9-2, tail 2*3, wing 4, tarsus 1-2, bill from 
gape 1-48. {Bingham, MS.) 
Phayre's Pitta was first obtained by Sir Arthur Phayre in the Tonghoo 
District, probably in the higher hills to the east of the Sittang river. 
Mr. Davison met with it in Tenasserim at Dargwiri and Wimpong, in the 
Yonzaleen valley and in the Sinzaway forest reserve, and Capt. Bingham 
found it in the Thoungyeen valley. It appears to be an excessively rare 
bird. 
Mr. Davison says : — " It has all the habits of a true Pitta, keeping and 
feeding, so far as I have observed, exclusively on the ground. It affects 
moderately thin tree-jungle. I observed it on one occasion close to 
Meetan. I have never, that I am aware, heard the note of this Thrush.^'' 
Capt. Bingham found the nest of this Pitta in the Thoungyeen valley. 
He says : — A little search showed me a compact, little, oven-shaped nest^ 
made on the ground at the foot of a tree, of leaves, roots and grass, and 
containing four eggs. The entrance to the nest was at the side looking 
down the steep slope on which it was built, and having a firm little plat- 
form of twigs leading up to it. The interior of the nest was lined with 
fine black roots. The eggs are glossy white, spotted chiefly at the larger 
end with purplish black."" 
