Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/402

388 brown ; wing-coverts tipped broadly with fulvous and with a subter- minal black bar on both webs ; tertiaries and tail rather duller than the back ; primaries brown, broadly tipped paler ; a large fulvous patch at the base of each feather ; secondaries brown, edged with the colour of the back ; chin and middle of the throat white ; sides of the throat fulvous, the feathers margined with black ; remainder of lower plumage fulvous ; the feathers of the breast very narrowly and indistinctly margined with black, and some of them with black spots ; the feathers of the sides of the body and flanks distinctly spotted near the tip of both webs ; under tail-coverts pink.

Female. Differs in wanting the black coronal streak and the black on the nape and hind neck, this colour being replaced by the colour of the back, but rather darker ; the feathers of the forehead and crown margined with black ; also differs in having the breast more marked with black and the spots on the sides of the body larger.

Male : bill dark horny ; iris nut-brown ; legs and feet dirty flesh-colour blotched with brown. Female : bill horny ; iris dark brown ; legs, feet, and claws fleshy white (BinyTiani).

Length about 9 inches ; tail 2-3 ; wing 3'9 ; tarsus 1*25 ; bill from gape 1*5.

Fig. 106. Head of A. phayrii,

Distribution. Burma east of the Sittoung river from the Karen hills east of Toungngoo to the valley of the Thoungyeen river.

Habits, $c. Bingham found a nest of this Pitta in Tenasserim in April. It was an oven-shaped structure on the ground at the root of a tree and was composed of leaves, roots, and grass, with a small platform of twigs leading up to the entrance, which was at the side. The nest contained four eggs, which were white marked with purple and black and measured about 1'09 by '86.

Genus PITTA, Vieill., 1816.

The genus Pitta contains those Pittas which have no aigrettes of pointed feathers, and which have a shorter and broader bill than Anthocinda. The tail-feathers of the birds of this genus vary considerably in shape, in some being broad and rounded, and in others narrow and pointed.