PITTA ARQUATA, Gouid.
Necklaced Pitta .
Pitta ( Phaznicocichla) arquata, Gould in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser. vol. vii. p. 340.—Gray, Hand-list of
Birds, p t. iii. p. 344. sp. 4370“.
T h e beautiful group of birds of which the present is an example comprises numerous species which are
widely spread over the warmer portions of the Old World, particularly India, China, Malasia, Borneo, Java,
Sumatra, the smaller islands of the Indian Archipelago, New Guinea, and Australia, while a solitary one
inhabits Africa. All the members of this limited family are gaily attired, the richness o f their hues forming
a great contrast to the inelegance o f their appearance and the unsymmetrical character of their contour.
Nearly every group of highly coloured birds resorts to the outermost parts of the forest or the sunny glades
of the interior, where they may be seen and admired; the Pittas, on the contrary, being shy, solitary, and
recluse in their habits, frequent the most rugged and stony portions o f the scrub, and must be sought for to
be found, generally among moss, covered stones, and tangled herbage. As already remarked, some o f the
species tenaut continents, others large islands, and others, again, smaller islands, some of which have their
own peculiar species not found elsewhere.
This new bird is somewhat allied to the P itta 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 a t once
distinguished from both by its very remarkable colouring, which in some respects resembles that o f the
P . erythrogastra of Temminck.
The specimen figured is supposed with some probability to be a female; if so, the male, when discovered,
will prove to be a still more lovely bird. The fine specimen from which the accompanying figures were
taken was received from Borneo by Mr. Cutter, from whom I purchased it, and is now in my own collection.
Forehead, lores, and throat reddish buff; crown, nape, and breast rich rusty r e d ; 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-green ; 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 figures are of the size of life.