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PHQENICOCICHLA ARQUATA, Gowda.

Necklaced Pitta.

Pitta (Phenicocichla) arquata, Gould, in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th series, vol. vii. p. 340.—Id. Birds of Asia,

part 23.—Gray, Hand-list of Birds, pt. iii. p. 344. sp. 4370a.—Salvad. Ucc. di Borneo, p. 241.—
Sharpe, Ibis, 1879, p. 263.

 

Tur beautiful Necklaced Pitta, Phenicocichla arquata, of which the present drawing represents three
examples, makes Borneo its home.

This bird is somewhat allied to the Pitta granatina of Temminck and the P. concinna of Eyton.
If there be any difference in size, it is perhaps a trifle smaller than either of those species ; but is at once
distinguishable from both by its very remarkable necklace.

In the year 1872 this beautiful Necklaced Pitta was described and figured in the ‘ Birds of Asia’ under
the specific name of arguata, and it was at the time the only specimen that had been collected. It formed
part of an early collection made by Mr. Alfred Everett in the Sarawak district, and was a worthy
commencement of the ornithological work for which that gentleman has since become so distinguished.
Since then only one other specimen has been discovered, and that was found by Mr. W. H. Treacher on the
Lawas river in North-western Borneo: this second specimen now belongs to the University Museum of
Oxford ; and it shows how rare these birds are when, in a country like Borneo with several collectors at
work, eight years elapse before a second example is obtained.

The “ necklace,” as I term the row of blue markings on the breast, is quite peculiar to this Pitta, and
reminds me more than any thing else of the necklaces of shells (Alenchus iisodontis ) which the Tasmanian
women used to wear, as I saw them years ago, before they became extinct from the face of the earth.

Forehead, lores, and throat reddish buff; crown, nape, and breast rich rusty red; over, but posterior
to, the eye a lovely stripe of blue, as in Pitta granatina ; a broken tooth-like bar of the same hue across the
breast, separating the rich rusty red of the chest from the deep scarlet of the abdomen; upper surface of
the body and scapularies brownish olive; primaries and secondaries brown, tinged with green; the
secondaries are also tipped with splendid blue, but not so conspicuously as in P. granatina ; tail blue, tinged
with olive; legs and bill black.

The fine specimens from which the accompanying figures were taken were received from Borneo. One
is now in my collection, and the other in the Oxford Museum, as mentioned above.

The Plate contains three figures, of the natural Size.

TT