PITTA MAXIMA, mit. & Seni.

Great Pitta.

Pitta maxima, Mull. & Schl. Verh. Nat. Gesch. Ned. Ind. Zool. p: 14.—Westerm. Bijdr. Dierk. p. 45, Pitta,
pie cuays Gen i 1p, 213.—Wallace, Ibis, 1859, p. 112, 1860, p- 197.—Schl. Vog. Nederl. Ind.
Pitta, p. 30.—Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 296.

Brachyurus maximus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 253.—Elliot, Monogr. Pittide, pl. 12.

Giganitpitta maxima, Bp. Consp. Vol. Anisod. p. 7.

Pitta gigas, Wallace, Malay Arch. ii. p. 3.

 

THERE are several species of Ant-Thrushes which are nearly, if not quite, equal to the present bird in size ;
so that the specific name of maxima would be by no means justified, if naturalists were content to class all
these birds under the heading of genus Pitta. By many writers, however, the large Ant-Thrushes of Malaisia
and the eastern Himalayas are generically separated as Hydrornis ; and Mr. George Robert Gray was
; I think that it
should be kept along with the true Prete, of course in the short-tailed group. Whether the latter

inclined to range the present bird under the same heading. In this I cannot agree

section should be regarded as constituting a separate genus is quite another matter; I consider this
much more feasible. Throughout the present work, however, I have retained these particoloured Ant-
Thrushes under the genus Pitta in preference to Brachyurus, and therefore adhere to it in the present
instance.

The habitat of this beautiful bird is the Moluccan island of Gilolo. Very little has been recorded of its
habits. Mr. Wallace, in his ‘ Malay Archipelago,’ writes that during his stay in the above-mentioned island
his boy Ali shot ‘a pair of one of the most beautiful birds of the east—Pitta eigas, a large Ground-Thrush,
whose plumage of velvety black above is relieved by a breast of pure white, shoulders of azure blue, and
belly of vivid crimson. It has very long and strong legs, and hops about with such activity, in the dense
tangled forest bristling with rocks, as to make it very difficult to shoot.” From the above short note of
Mr. Wallace’s we can imagine what a beautiful sight it must be to see this finely plumaged bird in its
native forests ; and even in a tropical island like Gilolo, where brilliantly coloured birds abound, there can be
few to compete with the subject of our present article.

No description of the bird is necessary, as it stands alone among the Pittide, and has no near allies.

The Plate gives a correct idea of the plumage; and the principal figure is full-sized.