42



Mr. Reginald Philupps,



eyes were very dark, and the legs, feet, and claws varying

between light flesh-colour and light yellow; but all the

brightness of the latter passed away with their owner’s life.


“ One may most easily describe the very interesting Mesia

fledgling bred by Mr. Phillipps by saying that in its general

colouration it strikingly resembles a cock Blackcap, Sylvia

atricapilla , and shows very little of the characteristic beautiful

colouring of its own species. The general hue above is smoky

drab, with a well-marked black cap ; the ear-coverts are silver-

grey as in the adult Mesia, and the quills have light outside

borderings, dirty cream-colour on the early primaries, passing

into ochre - yellow on the secondaries. The smoky drab

colour extends on to the breast and flanks, but the throat and

centre of the abdomen are dull cream-colour, the throat

verging slightly on yellow. There is a slight wash of olive-

green on the back of the neck. Such little of the tail-feathering

as has grown is dull bl.ack like the inner webs of the quills.

The under tail-coverts are dull brick-red. The bill is dull flesh-

colour, horny at the tip and gape, and the legs, feet, and claws

dull flesh-coloured also. The iris has apparently been brown.


“This colouration is evidently not quite normal, as the

parents themselves when I saw them some time ago struck me

as having faded much in the same way as the Liothrix does ;

their beaks also were very pale, whereas the Mesia’s beak should

be bright gamboge-yellow.* The bird in the Parrot-house

has still the bright hues of plumage and bill proper to the

species, so that warm housing would seem to tend to retention of

the colour in this bird.


“ The black cap of this young bird is remarkable,

inasmuch as Mr. Oates {Fauna of British India , Birds, Vol. I.,

p. 244) says that ‘ the young have the crown yellowish at first,’

Relying 011 this, I stated in my article on the Mesia in the

Feathered World of January 7th, 1900, that the young had not

the black cap.


“ This evidently is not an invariable rule ; and I have

noticed in India, where I had exceptional opportunities of



As my birds’ beaks now are.—R. P., 8.9.03.



