=p! TIMALIID 2. 
(876) Mesia argentauris argentauris. 
THE SILVER-EARED Mesta. 
Mesia argentauris Hodgs., Ind. Rev., 1838, p. 88 (Nepal) ; Blanf. & 
Oates, i, p. 244. 
Vernacular names. Chi-ro-chi-rit (Kachin); Dang-rap-chil-pho 
(Lepcha). 
Description.— Male. Forehead golden-yellow ; crown, nape, 
lores, cheeks black, produced as a stripe under the ear-coverts ; 
ear-coyverts silvery-white ; upper back and sides of neck fulvous 
yellow; lower back, scapulars, inner secondaries and wing-coverts 
slaty, some of the outermost of the latter edged with green; 
Fig. 67.—Head of 
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f. a. argentauris. 
rump ‘slaty-green ; upper tail-coverts crimson: tail blackish 
brown, the three outer pairs of feathers edged with yellowish ; 
wings brown, the first three primaries edged with yellow, the other 
quills with crimson near their bases and yellow elsewhere ; chin 
and throat deep orange-yellow; lower plumage olive-yellow, 
brighter on the breast and abdomen, the former of which is 
obsoletely streaked darker; under tail-coverts crimson. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown to brown; bill yellow- 
ochre, tinged with greenish or brown at the base; legs and feet 
fleshy-yellow. 
Measurements. Length about 180 mm.; wing 74 to 78 mm.; 
tail about 45 mm.; tarsus about 25 mm.; culmen 12 to 13 mm. 
The female and young have the upper and lower tail-coverts 
orange-buft and the latter also has the crown yellowish. 
Distribution. The Himalayas from Garhwal to East Assam 
North and South of the Brabmaputra, Manipur, Lushai, Chin, 
Kachin Hills, mountains of Central and S. Burma, Shan States, 
Siam. East of this it is replaced by a nearly allied race, M. a. 
cunhacei (Kloss). 
Nidification. Every word written on the nidification of Liothrix 
lutea would do equally well for this bird also and it is quite 
impossible to tell nests and eggs of the one from the other. ‘his 
bird, however, breeds a little lower down than does the Liothrix. 
Whilst the latter breeds principally between 4,500 and 7,000 teet 
this bird breeds for the most part between 3,000 and 5,000 feet 
aud whereas the former prefers pine-forests, the present one likes 
