BRACHYURUS (MELANOPHTA, BON.) ATRIOAPILLTJS.
the woods, often seeking the more secluded portions, and is of a shy, retiring habit.
Its food varies but little fi'om that of its relatives, consisting principally of insects
small worms, etc. In the color of their plumage the sexes are alike, the female
being a little smaller in size.
Gould, in the Birds of Asia, in his article on this species, says: • “Although the
brilliant plumage is acquired as soon as the bird has left the nest, considerable
difference occurs both in the intensity of the black which covers the head, and the
extent of the white on the primaries, which is much less than the adults; moreover,
in the youthful state, the first and second primaries are in some instances
entirely black, and large blotches of white occur in the secondaries, of which there
is no trace whatever, when the bird has attained its complete livery.”
“A difference is not to be looked for in the coloring of the sexes, for they are
alike in this respect, a somewhat smaller size only, indicating the female.”
“ Dense woods of bamboos, forests bordering rills, and dry stony gullies shrouded'
from the light, are the favorite resort of this bird, in which respect its habits
assimilate to those of its prototypes in Australia, the Pitta Iris and Pitta Strepitans.”
The young represented in the plate was described by me in the Proceedings
of the Philadelphia Academy as a new species under the title of Pitta Leueoptera.
Shortly after the publication of my article, I sent the bird to London to be
examined by Mr. Gould, who returned it to me as an undoubted Pitta Atricapitta.
As there is not a specimen of the young of that species in any collection in
this country, I of course was unable to identify my bird; yet, notwithstanding the
verdict given by so high an authority, I have introduced it with this species with
hesitation, for it would be a curious circumstance, that the young of Pitta Atriea—
pilla should have white shoulders, when, as a general thing, the young - of the
blue-shouldered species resemble their parents in their plumage from the time of
leaving their nests, and previous to this, there is no record of a white-shmildered
Pitta having been discovered.
I have, however, in deference to Mr. Gould’s opinion, placed the P. Leueoptera
among the synonyms of the present species, and figured it as its young, and at
the same time desire to call the attention of Ornithologists to the subject, hoping-
it will not be long before the question may be satisfactorily decided.
Perhaps here it will not be out of place to reproduce the remarks attached to
my description of the young given in the Academy’s Proceedings, which were as
follows:
BRACHYURUS (MELANOPITTA, BON.) ATRICAPILLUS.
“Of this species I have only a young bird, from which to take my description,
but it differs so greatly from the young of any species of this family, or even from
any adult which I have had an opportunity of examining, that I have determined
to give it a name, trusting that some future ornithologist, more fortunate than
myself, may succeed in discovering the adult. The great peculiarity of this species
is its white shoulders, which is a characteristic I have never before witnessed
among the Pittidae, that portion of the plumage in these birds being almost invariably
of different shades of blue; and as in the majority of the species of this
family the young bear the plumage of the adult from the period of leaving the
nest, I feel assured that the adult of P. Leueoptera would have a conspicuous
white wing.”
- “The 1st primary is all black, the 2d, 3d, and 4th have more or less white on
the lower half of both webs, while the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, are all white,
with the exception of the tips, which are black.”
“I obtained my specimen from M. Parsudaki, of Paris, and upon the label is
only the word Ceylon, which I suppose is its native country.”
The figures in the plate are of the natural size. The plant is the Silene Speciosa.