and more known through the researches of enterprising ornithologists, this species,
together with many others, now considered as restricted to certain districts, will be
found to be more widely and profusely distributed.
At the first glance it might readily be taken for the Pitta Bengalensis, but the following
characteristics will easily serve to distinguish it from that well-known species
It has a black instead of a brown head, and the stripe over the eye is of a greenish
white, nearly meeting at the occiput, while that of the Bengal Pitta runs down to the
nape of the neck, and is of a darker color. The tail of Vigors’ Pitta is tipped with green,
instead of blue, and the dark purplish red on the abdomen, is never found on that of
Pitta Bengalensis.
The present species was first noticed by Vigors and Horsfield in the fifteenth volume
of the Linnean Transactions, under the name of Pitta Brachyura; they, evidently,
not noticing its distinctive characteristics from the species commonly known by that
name.
Gould, in his Birds of Australia, separated the species, and dedicated this one to
the memory of the late Mr. Vigors.
The figures in the plate are life-size, and the graceful plant is the Blandifordia
Flammea—Flame-flowered Blandifordia, a native of Australia.