Order PASSERIFORMES . 
No. 425. 
Family PITT IBM. 
PULCHRIPITTA IRIS. 
RAINBOW PITTA. 
(Plate 371.) 
Pitta iris Gould, Birds Austr., pt. 6, March 1st, 1842: Port Essington, Northern 
Territory. 
Pitta iris Gould, Birds Austr., pt. 6, (Vol. IV., pi. 3), March 1st, 1842 ; id., Proc. Zool. 
Soc. (Loud.), 1842, p. 17, Nov. ; id., Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. I., p. 432, 1865 ; 
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 187, 1878 ; id., Tab. List Austr. 
Birds, p. 11, 1888 ; Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XIV., p. 444, 1888 ; Elliot, 
Mon. Pittidse, 2nd ed., pt. 2, pi. (44), 1893 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. 
Birds, Vol. II., p. 529, 1901; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 53, 1906; Mathews, 
Hand! Birds Austral., p. 60, 1908; North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat. No. 1, Vol. II., 
pt. in., p. 314, 1909; Hill, Emu, Vol. X., p. 272, pi. xxxm., 1911 (N.W.A.); 
Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 299, 1912 ; Hill, Emu, Vol. XII., p. 256, 
1913 ; H. L. White, ib., Vol. XVI., p. 221, 1917. 
Brachyurus iris Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 255, 1850 ; Elliot, Mon. Pittidse, 
1st ed., pi. 23, 1863 ; id.. Ibis, 1870, p. 419. 
Pulchripitta iris Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 162, 1913. 
Pulchripitta iris heatsi Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 5, p. 129, Jan. 28th, 1915 : 
Port Keats, Northern Territory. 
Pulchripitta iris melvillensis Mathews, ib. : Melville Island, Northern Territory. 
Pulchripitta iris iris Mathews, ib. 
Distribution. Northern Territory ; North-west Australia. Not Extra-limital. Not 
Cape York. 
Adult male. Head, hind-neck, sides of neck, sides of face, throat, breast, abdomen, 
sides of body, thighs, axillaries, and under wing-coverts deep velvety-black ; 
sides of the hinder-crown and nape irregularly marked with chestnut ; back, 
scapulars, greater upper wing-coverts, outer webs of secondary-quills, upper tail- 
coverts and tail bronze-green; lesser upper wing-coverts pale blue inclining to 
purple at the tips of the long ones ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and flight- 
quills black, the fourth, fifth, and sixth primary-quills slightly marked with white, 
tips of primary-quills bronze-green ; inner portion of secondary-quills black, which 
decreases in extent on the inner ones where it is restricted to the basal portion 
of the inner-webs ; long upper-tail-co verts and tail-feathers black at the base ; 
low er flanks oehreous ; vent and under tail-coverts bright red ; under-surface of 
flight-quills and lower aspect of tail black. Bill black, base of lower mandible 
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