GIGANTIPITTA C^RULEA. 
Larg’e Blue Pitta. 
Myiothera cceridea, Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 301 (1821^. 
Temm. PI. Col. p. 217 (1823). — Less. Traite d’Orn. p. 394 (1831). — & Schleg. Verh. nat. 
Gesch., fol., Zool. Pitta, p. 14 (1839-44). 
Pitta ccBrulea, Vigors, Mem. Raffles, App. p. 659 (1830). — Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 213 (1846). — Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. 
As. Soc. p. 156 (1849). — Moore, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854, p. 273. — Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. E.I. Co. 
Mus. i. p. 181 (1854). — Schleg. Vog. Nederl. Indie, Pitta, p. 2, pi. i. figs. 1-3(1863). — Wall. Ibis, 1864, 
p. 108. — Gray, Hand-1. B. i. p. 296, no. 4368 (1869). — Gould, Birds of Asia, pt. xxx. (1877). — Hume 
& Davison, Str. F. 1878, pt. 1, p. 238. — Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 59. 
Brachyimis caruleiis, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 153 (1847). — Bp. Consp. i. p. 253 (1850). — Elliot, Monogr. 
Pittidse, pi. 1 (1863). — Id. Ibis, 1870, p. 412. — Hume, Str. F. 1875, p. 321. 
Gigantipitta ccerulea. Bp. Consp. Volucr. Anis. p. 7 (1854). 
Brachyurus davisoni, Hume, Str. F. 1875, p. 321 (note). 
Since this species was first discovered in Sumatra by the late Sir Stamford Raffles, our knowledge of its 
habitat has increased only by slow degrees — so much so that even as lately as the year 1874 Professor 
Schlegel stated that it was confined to the island of Sumatra ; nor did Mr. Elliot acknowledge any other 
locality for the species. As early as 1854, however, Mr. Frederick Moore had included it in the list of 
Malayan birds collected by Dr. Cantor; and w'e have on several occasions seen specimens in consignments 
from Malacca and Singapore. Mr. Hume has duly included it in his list of the birds of the Malayan 
Peninsula; and w'e have no doubt that it ranges up the whole of the last-named country into 
Tenasserim. It is true that Mr, Hume has provisionally named the bird from the latter \occ\X\iy Brachyurus 
(lamsoni ; but we cannot see from his descriptions that it is really distinct from the true P. ccerulea of 
Sumatra and Malacca. It was procured by Mr. Davison at Bankasoon ; and he records it as a rare visitant 
to the evergreen forests of the southern extremity of the province of Tenasserim. He also gives the 
following note : — “ I first obtained this species on the 26th March in the evergreen forests of Bankasoon, 
two males on the same day : one I found caught in one of my traps in the morning ; the second I shot as 
it was hopping along the forest path the same evening. For a couple of months previously I had daily 
been exploring these forests, but had never met with the bird ; and it is my belief that they had then only 
just arrived. From this time up to my departure from Malewoon, in July, I on several occasions saw the 
bird; the most northern point at which I observed it was near the village of Laynah, on the 16th of May. 
The next year, in April, I shot a third male at Bankasoon, and in May we obtained our first female. They 
are extremely shy, and not at all like the other Pittas. Directly they catch sight of you they rise, flying 
low but rapidly, and not alighting under 200 or 300 yards, when, of course, in the dense forests, where 
alone they occur, all trace of them is lost. They doubtless must call ; but I have never heard their note to 
distinguish it. My specimens had fed entirely on large black ants.” 
Assuming, therefore, that the Pitta davisoni of Hume is identical with the true P. ciErulea, we have the 
range of the latter bird extending from Southern Tenasserim, down the Malayan peninsula, to Sumatra, a 
habitat which is perfectly intelligible and is followed out by many other species of birds ; nor is there any 
thing surprising in the fact that it should be met with in Borneo, which we now know to be the case ; for 
we have recently seen examples of both sexes, collected by Mr, W. B. Pryer in Sandakan, in the north- 
eastern portion of that island. On comparing these Sandakan birds with others from Malacca, we found 
them to be perfectly identical ; and there is therefore every probability that this large Pitta, like so many 
others of its congeners, is a migratory bird, whose breeding-place is probably in Sumatra. 
Independently of its large size and jieculiar coloration, the present species differs from most of its allies 
in having the sexes differing from one another ; and although this is by no means the only case within the 
limits of the family, it is decidedly the exception rather than the rule. 
A detailed description of the species is unnecessary, as the adult birds are easily recognizable. The 
young bird, however, is somewhat different ; and I transcribe Salomon Muller’s account of tlie capture of 
one in Sumatra, as translated from his great work on the Dutch East Indies by Mr. Elliot : — “ In the 
month of June, 1834, in Sumatra, not far from the base of the mountain Singalang, in a dark retired 
valley which was entirely covered with a thick undergrowth, we saw a young male. He was sitting on the 
dead branch of a low tree, and was not in the least shy ; the mellow reddish mouth and the peculiar 
softness of his feathers showed that he had not yet attained his first moult. The deep blue hue which 
adorns the older birds was in this specimen entirely wanting, with the exception of a slight indication on 
