Eurylaemus javanicus is blackish, with yellow markings on the back, tail, and wings; the head, neck, and under parts being vinous purple, with a black crescentic chest-band, which is absent in the hen. Corydon sumatranus is black, with a white alar bar and a buffish-white throat and fore-neck. They cover much the same area as Calyptomena. Cymborhynchus shews black and crimson colours, while the beautiful Psarisomus dalhousiae, found from the Eastern Himalayas to Borneo, has a green back and under surface, black and blue head and wings, yellow face and throat, and blue tail becoming black below. Serilophus contains two grey-brown species with chestnut rumps, ranging from Sikkim to Tenasserim. Sarcophanops is peculiar to the Philippines.
The quiet and solitary Broad-bills inhabit forests, thickets, and gardens, flying little, sitting sluggishly on the branches, taking insects on the wing, and uttering whistling or metallic notes. They make large roughish oval nests, with a large entrance near the top often protected by an overhanging roof, while a sort of tail is commonly added; these are suspended from low branches or plants close to water; the materials being twigs, roots, tendrils, moss, or leaves, felted together and smoothly lined with green foliage, flags, bamboo-spathes, or grass, sometimes renewed when dry. From three to five eggs are laid, pale yellowish in Calyptomena, white or rarely spotted with red in Psarisomus, and pinkish, buff or white elsewhere, with markings varying from black to rufous.
B. Clamatores.
This group includes the Pittidae, Philepittidae, Xenicidae, Tyrannidae, Oxyrhamphidae, Pipridae, Cotingidae, Phytotomidae, Dendrocolaptidae, Formicariidae, Conopophagidae, and Pteroptochidae.
Apparently the furcula is U-shaped; the tongue varies; the aftershaft is small, if present; the down is sparing or absent.
Fam. I. Pittidae.–The members of this Old World Family, nearly fifty in number, range from India to North China, East Australia, New Guinea, and New Britain; while one species is West African. They are stout, strong-billed forms, with short rounded wings and tail, the long metatarsus being more or less scutellated all round; the primaries number ten–the outer being decidedly long–the secondaries eight, the rectrices twelve. The plumage exhibits vivid scarlet, blue, and green tints, in addition to yellow, purple, black, brown, and white; elongated neck-feathers occur in Anthocincla, erect frontal plumes in Coracopitta. The tail in Pitta is nearly square, but is pointed in Eucichla, and Coracopitta. The habits seem to be fairly uniform, all the species haunting thickish jungle or dense scrub, whether in the rock-strewn glens of India, or the damp Malayan, Australian, and Papuasian forests. The birds are more often heard than seen, though the plaintive, oft-repeated double whistle of the smaller forms, or the mournful, triple cry of the larger, is seldom audible in the mid-day heat, both being recognisable by the long-drawn final syllable.
Fig. 99.–Pitta brachyura. × 3⁄7.
They are chiefly terrestrial, and jump from rock to rock or branch to stump with great agility; their apparently leisurely movements being really so quick that a mere glimpse is usually obtained through some opening in the foliage, while their habits are consequently difficult to observe. The quiet watcher may, however, hear the birds pattering over the beds of leaves, and see them hunting for molluscs and insects, or digging for worms and ants, but the slightest movement causes them to depart with long rapid hops, exchanged under pressure for a low, direct noiseless flight of short duration. Pittas are habitually, though not invariably, solitary, and are especially shy when breeding. P. moluccensis ascends the trees to call, P. oatesi occasionally whistles at night, while P. novae guineae flirts its tail like a Wagtail. The exposed nest, with its lateral entrance, is frequently placed on the ground at the foot of a tree or shrub, but sometimes amongst undergrowth or in very low forks; it is a rounded fabric of twigs, roots, bark, moss, leaves, and grass, often cemented with earth; the larger species making a clumsier and looser structure, the smaller a more compact mass. Unspotted eggs are rare, the usual colour being creamy-white with brown, reddish, grey, or purplish-black spots or scrawls; the number is from three to six. Anthocincla phayrii and Pitta cucullata are said occasionally to build a platform of sticks before their doorway, and the latter a projecting roof over it. The former species, which inhabits Burma, is brown with a black coronal streak, black and white superciliary stripes, white throat, and pink vent; Pitta caerulea is bright blue above, with black occiput and nape, but an otherwise ashy head; it is greyish-buff below, with a partial black collar. The female has a brown back, and a buffish head, with black cross-bars and collar. This very large form ranges from Tenasserim to Sumatra and Borneo; the smaller P. cyanea of Bhutan, Burma, and Siam is somewhat similar, but has a scarlet nape, and bluish under parts with black bars. P. maxima of Gilolo is glossy black, with blue wing-coverts, a white alar bar, green edges to the secondaries, white lower surface, black chin, and crimson belly. P. granatina of Borneo is purplish-black, with scarlet occiput and nape, blue superciliary stripe, some blue on the wing, purplish throat, and scarlet belly. P. baudi of the same island is crimson above, with blue crown and tail, black nape, and white alar bar; the lower parts being black, with purple and blue abdomen: the female is dull brown below. P. cyanoptera, reaching from Burma and Borneo to South China, is dull green above, with a dark central stripe and a black margin to the brownish crown; the black wing shews a white bar, and azure on the coverts; the tip of the black tail and the rump are blue; the lower surface is buff, with crimson on the belly. Several species have green under parts, a blue pectoral band, or no blue on the rump and wings. P. angolensis inhabits West Africa, P. nympha North China and Tsu-shima Island, P. iris and P. strepitans Australia; the latter reaches New Guinea, where it meets, among other forms, the entirely black Coracopitta lugubris, as well as P. mackloti, which extends to New Britain.
