Birds of Celebes: Pittidae. 
351 
a, has dark brown surface spots on a white ground; 
b, hght brown ones on a hke ground. 
Botii eggs measure 30 X 23.5 mm. In the delicacy of the markings they differ little 
from other Pitta-eggs” (Nehrkorn, MS.). 
Uest. The nest obtained by the Sarasins with the aboTe two nestlings is a most curious 
object. In shape a cylinder, closed at one end, or a large pocket, about 22 cm long 
by about 12 in external diameter. “According to the statement of the finder, the 
nest was situated on the ground; it represents a moss cylinder, open in front, and 
shut off by a tree-stem behind” (P. & P. S.). The side which seems to have lain on 
the ground is composed almost entirely of dark vegetable-fibres, the upper surface 
and sides chiefly of moss; the dark fibres form the internal structure. 
Distribution. North Celebes; Minahassa (Forsten a 1, a 6, Meyer c 3, etc.), Gorontalo Distr. 
(Riedel in Dresd. Mus.). 
The Green Pitta of Celebes is a rare bird in collections, and is known only 
from the Northern Peninsula of the island. It was not obtained by Wallace 
or von Rosenberg; Meyer found it a difficult bird to shoot and met with 
it only near Manado in December, 1870, and once again later, and Platen ob- 
served both it and P. celehensis beneath the underwood in the forest near Rurukan. 
In the stomach the Sarasins found insects. 
P. forsteni is well distinguished from P. sangirana of Great Sangi, P. muelleri 
of Borneo and P. atricapilla of the Philippines by its primaries being entirely 
black like the rest of the wing, instead of, as in these three species, white with 
the basal part and distal ends black. In respect of the wing P. forsteni more 
nearly resembles P. novaegiiineae M. & S. and its allies of the Papuan group, 
but these birds, having the black of the throat carried further down on to the 
jugulum, the sides of the abdomen blue or washed with blue, and a different 
green on the breast, seem to be rather further removed. In P. mafoorana Schl., 
as in P. forsteni, no white speculum is seen; in P. novaeguineae and rosenbergi 
it is very small. The variation of the quill-speculum is much more striking 
than in the Red Pittas, it seems to be undergoing, or has already undergone, 
obliteration east of Celebes, but to be on the increase north and west. The 
group, numbering 11 or 12 species (see Sclater 6, Whitehead 7), ranges 
from the Himalayas to New Guinea and North Australia. 
* 114. PITTA SANGIRANA (Schl.). 
Sangi Green Pitta. 
a. Pitta atricapilla sanghirana (t) Schl., Ned. Tdschr. Dierk. HI, 1866, 190. 
Pitta sanghirana flj Elliot, Ibis 1870, 411; (2) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. IX, 1876, 
54; (HI) Rowley, Orn. Misc. H, 1877, 329, pi. LXV; (4) Meyer, t. c. 330; (5) 
W. Bias., Ornis 1888, 597; (6) Sclat., Cat. B. XIV, 1888, 440; (7) Whitehead, 
Bus 1893, 499. 
b. Pitta atricapilla pt. (1) Schl., Rev. Pitt. 1874, 5 (Sangi). 
“Kopau”, Great Sangi, Nat. Coll. 
Por further synonymy cf. W. Blasius 5. 
