PITTA CONCINNA, Gowda.

Elegant Pitta.

Brachyurus vigorsi, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 255 (1850, nec Gould).

Pitta concinna, Gould, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 65.—Wallace, P. Z.S. 1863, p. 485.—Schlegel, Voge. van Nederl. Indié,
pp. 12, 32, pl. ii. fig. 1 (1863).—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Pitta, p. 10 (1865).—Id. op. cit., Revue Pitta,
p. 14 (1874).

Pitta mathilde, J. & E. Verreaux, Rey. et Mag. de Zool. 1857, p. 303, pl. xi.

Brachyurus concinnus, Elliot, Monogr. Pittide, pl. x. (1863).—Id. Ibis, 1870, p. 416.

 

Tuts species of Prtta was first published by me in 1857, when I described it from specimens obtained by Mr.
A. R. Wallace in the island of Lombock. It appears that it also inhabits the island of Sumbawa, as speci-
mens from the latter locality were contained in the Leiden Museum many years before I described the bird
as new, and one of these specimens was wrongly identified by Bonaparte as Pitta vigorsi, figured by me in
the ‘Birds of Australia.’ Professor Schlegel, however, in his list of the Pittas in the Leiden Museum, has
corrected the error of Bonaparte, which an examination of the specimen described by the latter enabled him
to do, and has placed the species in its correct position. In the supplementary list of the Leiden Pittas,
Professor Schlegel records two specimens from the island of Flores ; so that its range is now known to include
the three islands of Flores, Lombock, and Sumbawa, to which it will probably be found to be confined.

The characters by which P. concinna may be distinguished are its small size and the tint of the brown
on the head, which is much clearer than in P. s¢repitans and only extends as far as the occiput, where it is
prolonged into a streak of bluish white.

I regret to say that nothing has been written respecting the habits of this bird; and I can only add that
the name concinna, published by me, has a slight priority (only of a few days, according to Mr. Elliot) over
the name mathilde, given by MM. Verreaux in the same year.

The following is a copy of the original description :—

« Head, back of the neck, cheeks, chin, and stripe down the centre of the throat velvety black; from the
ad mark of deep buff, posterior to which is a narrower one of pale glaucous blue ;
lesser wing-coverts and a band across the rump glossy verditer blue ;
sixth of the former crossed by a band of white near

nostrils over each eye a bro
back, tail, and wings dark grass-green ;
primaries and secondaries black, the fourth, fifth, and
their base, and all the primaries tipped on the external web with olive grey; upper tail-coverts black ; under
. © r » 1. * . ~
surface delicate fawn-colour, becoming much paler where 1t meets the black of the cheeks and throat ; centre
of the abdomen black ; vent and under tail-coverts fine scarlet ; bill black; feet fleshy.
: i : ee
“Total length 6 inches, bill 1, wing 4, tail 13, tarsus Is. .
The figures in the Plate, representing the two sexes about the natural size, are drawn from the typical

specimens, still in my possession.