THE



379



Bvtcultural flfoagasine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICU LTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series .—VO L. I. —NO. 12.—'4^ rights reserved. OCTOBER, 1903.


THE SILVER-EARED MESIA.


Mesici argentauris.


By Reginald Phillipps.


I think it was Mr. Wesley T. Page who first drew our

attention (VII., p. 168) to some rare and beautiful birds that had

been presented to the London Zoological Society by Mr. E. W.

Harper, and which, in June 1901, were on view in the Parrot

House. Amongst these was a male Silver-eared Mesia, which he

at once recognised as being akin to our very old friend the

Yellow-bellied Liothrix, Liothrix lutea. Early in 1902, Mr.

Harper personally brought some specimens to this country, five

I was told. Some of these have appeared at the Bird Shows,

and will have been noticed by several of our Members; and I

suppose that these are the three, one male and two females, which

rather recently have found a resting place in Mr. D. Seth-

Smith’s comfortable aviaries. But the other two came into my

hands on the 27th June, 1902; and it is this pair that form the

foundation of the present article. Before taking up their story,

however, let me say a few words concerning the species

generally.


As already stated, the Silver-eared Mesia, called by Jerdon

the Silver-eared Hill-Tit, is nearly allied to the common

Liothrix, although placed in a separate genus, and like that

species is a native of the Himalayas. It, however, keeps to a

lower elevation, a circumstance that points to its being a less

hardy species. Its range too is not so extensive, for, while the

Liothrix may be found as far away as Southern China, the

Museum Catalogue (VII., p. 643) tells us that the Mesia is



