180 Bulletin of the British 
pectoral collar and black ring round the neck, are the most 
distinct. 
“ The best known and the most widely distributed is 
probably P. mackloti, which inhabits nearly the whole 
of New Guinea, Waigiu, Salwatti, Mysol, and—according 
to Salvadori, Sclater, and others—also the Aru Islands, 
Cape York, New Britain, and the Key Islands. From the 
last locality Count Salvadori had no adult specimens when 
he wrote his great work; but I have now a fine series, and 
find that the species is not P. mackloti , but as different 
as many of the other forms of this group. In Pitta 
ktjehni —as I propose to name the form inhabiting the 
Key Islands and Koer—the blue of the chest extends over 
the sides of the chest and breast (where there is a green 
patch in P. mackloti) and is continued in a narrow blue 
ring round the upper back. The feathers on the sides of 
the chest appear to be somewhat more elongated than in 
P. mackloti . Adult birds have some blue on the crown—a 
character which is rather rare in P. mackloti. 
“ Pitta finschi, described by Bamsay from the Astrolabe 
Bange, is the Pitta of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands ; and 
Elliot is quite wrong in placing P. finschi as a synonym of 
P. cyanonota from Ternate. The latter has the head reddish 
brown and the throat pale brown, while P. finschi is rightly 
described by Bamsay as having the head dark reddish 
chocolate-brown and the throat black, and the measurements 
are much larger. The locality f Astrolabe Bange’ is probably 
wrong. 
“ P. lorice , Salvad., is another form which has hitherto been 
very little known. It differs from P. mackloti in its uniform 
dark-brown head, nape, and hind-neck. It occurs near 
Milne Bay, S.E. New Guinea, where it seems to replace the 
common P. mackloti. The green-backed females of his 
P. finschi mentioned by Bamsay, and considered by Finsch 
to belong to P. mackloti , were most likely specimens of 
P. lorice. 
“Pitta novce-hibernice from New Hanover and New Ire¬ 
land has been wrongly confused with P. mackloti . 
