BLUE-BREASTED PITTA. 
the body, and under tail-coverts bright red ; axillaries and under wing-coverts 
slate-blue ; under-surface of quills glossy dark brown with a white patch, lower 
aspect of tail black. Bill black ; eyes brown ; gape pink ; feet and tarsus slate. 
Total length 190 mm. ; culmen 21, wing 108, tail 40, tarsus 38. Figured. 
Collected on Claudie River, Northern Queensland, on the 23rd of December, 1913. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but the chin, upper half of the throat and cheeks 
sooty-brown, not black. 
Immature. Crown of head, nape, and hind-neck dark earth-brown, becoming paler on 
the middle of the fore-head and feathers surrounding the eye ; cheeks, throat, 
and breast grey with a pinkish tinge, some of the feathers showing dark shaft- 
lines, an incomplete semicircular band of black across the throat, and a few slaty- 
blue feathers on the upper-breast ; lower-breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts 
red, more or less intermixed with buff ; sides of body bronze-green ; back, scapulars, 
upper wing-coverts and innermost secondaries dark bronze-green, some of the 
lesser upper wing-coverts marked with white ; outer webs of greater coverts and 
secondary-quills and tail slate-blue ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills 
black, the tips of the last greyish-brown, the second, third, fourth, and fifth 
prim ary- quills marked with white ; under wing-coverts lead-grey ; under-surface 
of quills similar, with a patch of white ; lower aspect of tail brown. Figured. 
Collected at Cape York, Northern Queensland, on the 15th of April, 1913. 
Nest. “Domed, composed of twigs and leaves, and lined with fine, hair-like fibres.” 
(Macgillivray . ) 
Eggs. Clutch, three to four. Rather like those of the preceding species, and measure 
about the same or a trifle smaller. 
Breeding-season. October to December. 
All Barnard wrote : “ The notes given for Pitta simillima apply to this 
species which is very plentiful.” 
Macgillivray ’s first note is not much better : “ Found during summer 
months only at Cape York, when they are common. The note is a mournful 
whistle of two notes. The birds will always answer a call, and may often be 
seen sitting on a tree and calling. The nest is usually placed on a stump or in 
a mass of vines at from two to eight feet from the ground. It is domed, com- 
posed of twigs and leaves, and lined with fine, hair-like fibres. Common in 
Batavia and Ducie River scrubs.” But later he added as follows : “ The Blue- 
breasted Pitta was not seen or heard until after our return from the Barrier 
Reef trip. On the 23rd December we first heard its melancholy call, and later 
on the same day we saw one. The call became more frequent every day until 
by the 28th it was constantly heard from different parts of the scrub. Like 
the other species, it could be called up to within view by imitating the call,” 
and gave a fuller account of finding nests and eggs. 
Thus, while the nests and eggs are fairly well known very little is known 
of its life-history. 
Pitta macklotii was described from Baie de Lobo, New Guinea and in 1912 
I separated the Cape York breeding bird as a distinct subspecies, but since then 
VOL. VIII. 
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