Pittas. 
3 
Jay to that of a Lark, and generally have a strong bill, a thick-set form, 
which is mounted on rather high legs with scutellated " tarsi," and a very 
short tail. In many of the forms there is little or no external difference 
in the sexes." 
Our frontispiece, drawn by Mrs. A. M. Cook (presented 
to the Cltib) from a living specimen at the London Zoo, 
illitstrates one of the rarer species of the yenus Eucichla, which 
lias a loti,^-er tail than most (if not all) spec'es of the i:?eniis Pitta. 
In the Indian I'itta {P. bracliyiira), the tail almost passes 
unnoticed at a casual s^'lance, and, while in every sense complete, 
it is very short indeed. 
I will i^-ive a description of the Indian Pitta, as this is the 
species I have kept and am most acquainted with. 
It is called by the natives Nanrang (nine colours) on 
account of its inany-hued garment. 
The crown is yellow washed with orange, and sharply 
divided in the centre by a broad band of black running from the 
beak to the nape, where it is met by a broader black band which 
passes below the eye ; the eyebrow is white ; the mantle and back 
are bluish-green; upper tail-coverts pale blue; wing and tail 
feathers black tipped w-itli blue; bands of pale blue and white 
cross the wing, the latter only being visible when the wings are 
expanded: chin and throat white; breast opaque orange-yellow; 
under tail-coverts crimson. 
Mr. Douglas Dewar, in Glimpses of Indian Birds, aptly 
describes this species — " a rainbow in himself, displaying as lie 
does red, yellow, grey, and various shades of blue and green, 
to say nothing of black and white." 
Mr. Dewar also so ably tells of its habits and deportmeiit 
in a state of nature in Jungle Folk, that I am quoting him in 
entenso. 
Some Indian birds are adepts at self-advertisement. To use an 
expressive vulgarism, they continually "hit you in the eye;" they obtrude 
themselves upon you in season and out of season. Others are so retiring 
that you may live among them for years without observing them. ,To this 
class, the class that hide their light under a bushel, the beautiful Indian Pitta 
(Pitta brachyiira) belongs. There is at least one favoured compound in 
Madras where a pitta, or possibly a pair of them, spends the cool-weather 
season. Pittas proclaim their presence by uttering at dawn their cheery 
notes, which \rd\c been described as an attempt to whistle in a moderatelr 
high key, the words " quite clear." If, on hearing this call, you are sufli 
ciently energetic to go out of doors, you will probably see on the ground a 
