Garnet as gemstones. The gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. In the US it is known as the birthstone for January. It is the state mineral of Connecticut, New York's gemstone, and star garnet (garnet with rutile asterisms) is the state gemstone of Idaho. Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting. Alluvial garnet grains which are rounder are more suitable for such blasting treatments. Mixed with very high pressure water, garnet is used to cut steel and other materials in water jets. For water jet cutting, garnet
Garnet pitta Garnet pitta The garnet pitta ("Erythropitta granatina") is a species of bird in the Pittidae family. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. The form occurring in the Malaysian state of Sabah has been split as the black-crowned pitta ("Erythropitta ussheri"). The garnet pitta is an insectivore, feeding mainly on ants, wood grubs, cockroaches, and beetles. The Garnet pitta is about 17 cm long. The bird has a black head with a bright blue stripe at the eyebrows and a