OTTA. CQÌfCINHA, OouU-.
PITTA CONCINNA, Gould.
Elegant Pitta.
Brachyurus vigorsi, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay. i. p. 255 (1850, nec Gould).
Pitta concinna, Gould, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 6 5—Wallace, P. Z.S. 1863, p. 485 —Schlegel, Vog. van Nederl. Indie,
pp. 12, 32, pi. iil. fig. 1 (1863).—Id. Mus. Pays-Bas, Pitta, p. 10 (1865).—Id. op. cit., Revue Pitta,
p. 14 (1874).
Pitta mathilda, J. & E. Verreaux, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1857, p. 303, pi. xi.
Brachyurus concinnus, Elliot, Monogr. Pittidae, pi. x. (1863).—Id. Ibis, 1870, p. 416.
T his species of Pitta was first published by me in 1857, when I described it from specimens obtained by Mr.
A. R. Wallace in the island o f Lombock. I t appears th at it also inhabits the island of Sumbawa, as specimens
from the latter locality were contained in the Leiden Museum many years before I described the bird
as new, and one o f these specimens was wrongly identified by Bonaparte as Pitta vigorsi, figured by me in
the ‘ B irds of Australia.’ Professor Schlegel, however, in his list of the Pittas in the Leiden Museum, has
corrected the erro r o f Bonaparte, which an examination o f the specimen described by the latter enabled him
to do, and has placed the species in its correct position. In the supplementary list o f the Leiden Pittas,
Professor Schlegel records two specimens from the island o f Flores ; so th at its range is now known to include
the three islands of F lores, Lombock, and Sumbawa, to which it will probably be found to be confined.
The characters by which P. concinna may be distinguished are its small size and the tint o f the brown
on the head, which is much clearer than in P. strepitans and only extends as far as the occiput, where it is
prolonged into a streak of bluish white.
I regret to say th at nothing has been written respecting the habits o f this b ird ; and I can only add that
the name concinna, published by me, has a slight priority (only of a few days, according to Mr. Elliot) over
the name mathildce, given by MM. Verreaux in the same year.
The following is a copy o f the original description :-=£ ;
“ Head, back of the neck, cheeks, chin, and stripe down the centre o f the throat velvety black ; from the
nostrils over each eye a broad mark o f deep buff, posterior to which is a narrower one o f pale glaucous b lu e ;
back, tail, and wings dark grass-green ; lesser wing-coverts and a band across the rump, glossy verditer b lu e ;
primaries and secondaries black, the fourth, fifth, and sixth o f the former crossed by a band o f white near
their base, and all the primaries tipped on the external web with olive g re y ; upper tail-coverts b lack ; under
surface delicate fawn-colour, becoming much paler where it meets the black o f the cheeks and th ro a t; centre
o f the abdomen black ; vent and under tail-coverts fine sc a rle t; bill b lack ; feet fleshy.
“ Total length 6 inches, bill 1, wing 4, tail 14, tarsus I f . ”
The figures in the Plate, representing the two sexes about the natural size, are drawn from the typical
specimens,- still in my possession.