suits which far surpassed our expectations. This is the most remarkable as regards the
fauna, we having in no other island visited by us in India discovered so many large
and new species of viviparous animals as here.
“ Hot so successful, even less fortunate than in Sumatra, was on the contrary our harvest
in the department of ornithology. The Pitta, of which we here furnish an illustration,
undoubtedly belongs to the most beautiful of the feathered dwellers in Borneo,
and it is for that reason we have destined it to bear a name which we shall always hold
in grateful remembrance.
“ The beautiful colors, so dazzling in the Pitta of the old world, are found in no
species so striking as in this new variety, being placed dose together without any intermediate
middle tints, producing so variegated an effect as to involuntarily incline the
beholder to consider the bird somewhat in the light of a pattern-card of colors. On
that account this beautiful bird differs in distribution of colors from every known species,
and may therefore be regarded as standing by itself, isolated.
“ It is not only in the coloring of its plumage that this species so greatly differs from
its relatives, but also in the shape of its feathers, especially those of the head, which
are unusually narrow and perfectly lancet-shaped, while those on the back appear far
more oblong than in any other species, and all the threads of the flag are split.
“ As a general thing we have to remark, that the arrangement and form of the
feathers in the different varieties of this family differ more or less from each other.
Above all, wherever the colors are brilliant, they assume a metallic gloss, which in the
blue and green is mostly strong, but which in the red is less apparent. The threads
which constitute the flag of the feathers are in the last kind generally disunited, which
often causes them to have the appearance of being split, and is frequently to be observed
in birds that have been injured by constant handling. This remark is not however
applicable to all parts of the body, but is most striking to the eye in the red
colored feathers on the back part of the head in Pitta G-ranatina, and in the blue on
the breast of Pitta Macklotii.
11 Yery seldom do the feathers of these birds assume a scaly appearance, as is the
case in Pitta Granatina, which, in consequence of the red on the back part of the head,
appears much rounder than in the other varieties.
“ The feathers on the other parts of the body of our new species exhibit no new
features which require especial mention, with the exception of the fact, that the white
feathers of the throat are smaller than usual, and those of the breast and belly, like
those of the upper parts, have a strong metallic gloss.
c( Our new bird assimilates in size to the Pitta Yenusta of Sumatra, and also corresponds
with that species in the shape and color of its bill.
“ To our regret we were not able in this bird to ascertain either the color of the feet
or that of the iris, only being able to examine in its dried condition the single specimen
of which we became possessed.”
Pitta Baudii has remained a very rare species up to the present time, and there are
but few collections that possess an example. The one in the Academy of Natural Sciences
at Philadelphia, from which my drawing was made, was obtained from the
museum at Leyden, through its late director M. Temminck, and is marked in his own
handwriting, excessiv&ment rare. It is a full-plumaged adult, and a superb specimen.
I have known as large a sum as one hundred dollars to be paid for a single example
of Baud’s Pitta.
So few birds of this species have been obtained by the ornithologist that necessarily
but little is known of its economy and habits; even, (as in the case of Messrs.
Muller and Schlegel,) although one may go to its native haunts, it is not always to be
found, which goes to prove that it is not abundant, for so richly plumaged a bird would
not be passed unnoticed by any one in pursuit of objects of natural history.
The plate contains two figures of the adult bird of the natural size.