PITTA. 
173 
vicinity of Cardwell. It frequents the thickets and densest parts 
of the scrubs, and, were it not far its loud liquid call, would seldom 
be found even when searched for. T know of no bird more elegant 
and which trips over the fallen leaves and logs, or threads its way 
throug the tangled masses of vegetation, with such grace and ease 
as Pitta strepitans. The nest is a round dome-shaped structure, 
having a large opening at the side, composed of roots, sticks, and 
twigs, with a little moss, and lined with rootlets, mosses, and a 
few feathers. It is usually placed upon the ground, but sometimes 
a few inches from it, in the angle which the “ spurs ’ make with 
the stems of the trees, or some other suitable place. The eggs are 
four in number, in length from l - 2 to l - 3 inch by 0'9 to 1 inch in 
breadth. Their ground colour is of a delicate white, in some 
specimens bluish-white, having elongated, irregularly-shaped spots 
of brown and blackisli-brown evenly dispersed over the whole 
surface, with obsolete spots of bluish-grey, which are usually 
largest on the thicker end of the egg. A second variety of the 
egg of this bird, one of which is usually found in a set, is much 
more elongated in form, and has the whole of the thick end freckled 
with minute dots of bluish-grey, without any other markings save 
here and there a small blackish dot. Length 1 -6 inch ; breadth 
0-9 inch.” (liamsay, Ibis, 1867, Yol. iii., New Series, p. 414, pi. 
viii., fig. 2.) 
Two eggs in the Australian Museum Collection measure as 
follows : — length (A) 1-25 x P02 inch ; (B) D23 x 0'9S inch. 
Hub. Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 
Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales. 
(Ramsay.) 
PITTA SIMILIMA, Gould, (subsp.) 
Gould, P.Z.S., 1868, p. 76. 
“ This northern variety of Pitta strepitans I found common 
enoughattlie Herbert River, and scrubs near Cardwell. Someof the 
specimens are deeper coloured and smaller even than any I have 
