THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR, 210 
I have found this bird both in the evergreen forest of some of the 
lower, warmer valleys, and also in the open oak forest to the north- 
east of the district. In its habits and actions it is essentially tit-like, 
but perhaps less active than the majority of these birds. 
(104) Masta ARGENTAURIS.—The Silver-eared Mesia. 
Oates, No. 257; Hume, No. 615. 
Very common everywhere over 3,000 feet. 
(105) Mita rerrmsetTa.—The Red-tailed Minla. 
Oates, No. 258 ; Hume, No. 618. 
I once met with a large flock of these birds hunting for insects on 
the high bushes and small saplings beside a road at an elevation of some 
4,000 feet. They did not seem to visit the higher trees at all, but kept 
low down below 20 feet or so. They were not at all shy, and several 
of them came again and again within a few feet of me, so that, though 
T had no gun with which to obtain a specimen, I had not the slightest 
difficulty in identifying them. They continued to flit along the sides 
of the bushes in front of me for some two or three hundred yards, 
uttering a continuous twittering chirp. 
(106) PsaRoGLossA SPILOPTERA.—The Spotted-wing. 
Oates, No. 261; Hume, No. 691. 
This bird is common everywhere during the cold season, but appears 
to retire to the hills from 3,000 feet upwards during the breeding 
season. 
Oates says that neither its structure, its habits, nor the colour of its 
eggs show any affinities with the Sturnide. I should have described 
its habits as being exactly the same as Sturnza malabarica, and its nest 
as being undistinguishable from that of that bird—that is to say, it makes 
a rough pad of straw, grasses and a few feathers in a natural hole in a 
tree, Its egos are nearer to Oates’ Hulabetide than to the Sturnide. 
It is curious that none of the modern ornithologists seem to have 
mentioned one of the most distinctive characteristics of the male bird’s 
plumage, wz., the remarkably lengthened plumes at the base of the 
outer secondary quill feathers of the wing. For a distance of about °75" 
to *90" from the base the plumes of the feathers are much lengthened 
on the outer webs, forming a most distinct fluffy patch on this part of 
the wing. ‘This feature is not present in the wing of the female, 
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