GIGANTIPITTA CASRULEA.

Large Blue Pitta.

Mywothera cerulea, Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soe. xii. p. 301 (1821).

Pitta gigas, Temm. Pl. Col. p. 217 (1823).—Less. Traité d’Orn. p. 394 (1831).—Miull. & Schlee. Verh. nat.
Gesch., fol., Zool. Pitta, p. 14 (1839-44). 2

Pitta carulea, 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. Indié, Pitta, p. 2, pl.i. figs. 1-3 (1863).— Wall. Ibis, 1864,
p. 108.—Gray, Hand-l. 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.

Brachyurus ceruleus, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 153 (1847) Bp. (Consp: 1, p. 253 (1850).—Elhot, Monogr.
Pittidze, pl. 1 (1863).—Id. Ibis, 1870, p. 412 —Hume, Str. F. 1875, ele

Gigantipitta cerulea, Bp. Consp. Volucr. Anis. p. 7 (1854).

Brachyurus davisoni, Hume, Str. F. 1875, p. 321 (note).

 

Suvce 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 we have on several occasions seen specimens in consignments
from Malacea and Singapore. Mr. Hume has duly included it in his list of the birds of the Malayan
Peninsula; and we 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 locality Brachyurus
davison’; but we cannot see from his descriptions that it is really distinct from the true P. cerulea 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 davisont of Hume is identical with the true P. cerulea, 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 peculiar 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 ale easily recognizable. The
young bird, however, is somewhat different ; and I transcribe Salomon Miller's account or the capture of
one in Sumatra, as translated from his great work on the Dutch Hast Indies by Mr. ee :—In ibe
month of June, 1834, in Sumatra, not far from the base of the mountain Singalang, i a darks retired
valley which was entirely covered with a thick undergrowth, we saw a young male. He was sitting on ae
dead branch of a low tree, and was not in the least shy; the mellow Fee Ee and the pecu iat
softness of his feathers showed that he had not yet attained his first moult. The deep blue hue which

i 1 i i irely wanting, Wi » exception of a slight indication on
adorns the older birds was in this specimen entirely wanting, with the except a slig ‘