PITTA CYANEA, myth.
Blue Pitta .
Pitta gig as, Blyth, Joum. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xii. p. 961.
cyanea, Blyth, Jo um . Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xii. p. 1008.—lb . Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta,
p. 157.—Gray and Mitch. Gen. of B irds, vol. i. p. 213, Pitta, sp. 4. pl.lv.
Brachyurus cyaneus, Blyth, Jo um . Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 153.
I r r e s p e c t iv e of their form, which is not very graceful, there certainly is not a more beautiful tribe of birds
than the members of the genus Pitta, and the present species must always rank as one o f the most lovely
o f the entire group, o f which hitherto the Indian islands and the continent of Australia have been considered
the native h a b ita t; but we now know that the Indian continent is also tenanted by several of them.
Mr. Blyth, who first described this bird in the “ Journal of the Asiatic Society o f Bengal,” under the name
of P. cyanea, states th at it was received from Arracan. I am indebted to H. E. Strickland, Esq. for the loan
of the fine example from which my figures are taken, and which, with two others in the Museum of the
Honourable East India Company, are all that have come under my notice.
Crown of the head dull olive-brown, with a stripe of black down the c en tre ; occiput bright red ; upper
surface fine blue ; under surface pale blue washed with green on the breast, all the feathers marked with
imperfect black bands, which become entire on the sides of the breast and flanks; lores and stripe from
the eye to the nape b lack ; throat light brown, with an oblique mark on either side o f black, with a stripe
o f buffy white down the centre o f each fea th e r; bases of the primaries and tips of the under wing-coverts
white ; primaries slaty b lack ; bill black ; feet flesh-colour.
The figures are of the natural size ; the plant in the background is the Gastrochilus pulclerrimus.