160 CEATEEOPODIDJE. 



simply a greyish white. In one egg the markings are all of one 

 colour, a sort of chocolate-brown, a dense almost confluent mass of 

 mottlings in a broad irregular zone round the large end and else- 

 where pretty thickly set over the entire surface of the egg. They 

 have always a certain amount of gloss, but are never very glossy. 



257. Mesia argentauris, Hodgs. The Silver-eared Mesia. 



Leiothrix argentauris (Hodgs.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 251. 



Mesia argentauris, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 615. 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Silver-eared Mesia 

 breeds in the low-lands of Nepal, laying in May and June. The 

 nest is placed in a bushy tree, between two or three thin twigs, 

 to which it is attached. It is composed of dry bamboo and other 

 leaves, thin grass-roots and moss, and is lined inside with fine 

 roots. Three or four eggs are laid : one of these is figured as a 

 broad oval, much pointed towards one end, measuring 0-8 by 0-6, 

 having a pale green ground with a few brownish-red specks, and 

 a close circle of spots of the same colour round the large end. 



Dr. Jerdon brought me two eggs from D&rjeeling, w r hich he 

 believed to belong to this species. They much resemble those of 

 Lioihriw lutea. They are oval, scarcely pointed at all towards 

 the lesser end, and are faintly glossed. The ground-colour of one 

 is greenish, the other creamy, white, and both are spotted and 

 streaked, chiefly in an irregular zone near the large end, with 

 different shades of red and purple. The markings are smaller than 

 those of the preceding species. Further observations are neces- 

 sary to confirm the authenticity of the eggs. 



They measure 0-85 and 0-87 by 0-65. 



From Sikhim Mr. Garnmie writes : " I have taken about half 

 a dozen nests of this bird. They closely resemble those of Lioihrix 

 lutea in size and structure and are similarly situated, but instead 

 of having the egg-cavity lined with dark-coloured material, as that 

 species has, all I found had light-coloured linings ; such was even 

 the case with one nest I found within three or four yards of a nest 

 of the other species. 



" The eggs are usually four in number." 



Other eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie correspond with those given 

 me by Dr. Jerdon. They are as like the eggs of L. lutea as 

 they can possibly be, and if there is any difference, it consists in 

 the markings of the present species being as a body smaller and 

 more speckled than those of L. lutea. 



The six eggs that I have vary in length from 0*82 to O9, and 

 in breadth from 0*6 to 0'65.* 



* There is in the Tweeddale collection a skin of a young nestling of this 

 species procured by Limborg on Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim in the second 

 week of April. On the label attached to the specimen is a note to the effect 

 that the nest from which the nestling was taken was made of moss. ED, 



