LEI0TRICHINJ5. 251 



Bill coral-red ; legs flesh}' - brown; irides brown. Length 6^ inches; 

 extent 9 ; wing 2f ; tail 2^; bill at front y 7 -^; tarsus 1 T '^. The 

 green' of the back soon fades to a greyish, and the bright yellow 

 to buffy yellow. 



The red-billed Leiothrix is one of the most common birds about 

 Darjeeling. It usually associates in email parties of five or six, 

 frequenting the dense thickets and underwood that springs up 

 wherever the forest is partially cleared. It is a shy bird, and 

 avoids observation in general. Its food consists of berries, fruits, 

 seeds, and insects. Now and then, during the winter, I have seen 

 a party of them alight on a road for a few seconds, apparently pick 

 up some gravel, and then hurry off into the jungle again. Its usual 

 note is a chattering call, but in the spring the male has a very 

 pleasing song. I got the nest and eggs repeatedly ; the nest 

 made chiefly of grass, with roots, fibres, and fragments of moss, 

 and usually containing three or four eggs, bluish white, with a few 

 purple and red blotches. It is generally placed in a leafy bush, 

 at no great height from the ground. Gould, quoting from Mr. 

 Shore's notes, says that the eggs are black spotted with yellow. 

 This is of course erroneous. I have taken the nest myself on several 

 occasions, and killed the bird; and, in every case, the eggs were 

 colored as above. This species appears to spread over all the 

 Himalayas ; is found from 5,000 to 8,000 feet, and higher. It is 

 common on the Khasia Hills, and other hill ranges to the south- 

 east ; and is said to occur also in China. I have seen it caged, 

 and it is a lively and amusing pet. 



The next species differs so slightly in structure, and in its mode 

 of coloration, that I think it barely separable. Hodgson makes 

 it the type of his genus Mesia, subsequently Philocalyx and Frin- 

 gilliparus. It has the bill a trifle longer and less curved, the tail 

 more lengthened and even, with the outermost feathers slightly 

 shorter. t 



615. Leiothrix argentauris, Hodgson. 



Mesia, apud Hodgson, — Dang rapchil-pho, Lepch. 



The Silver-eared Hill-tit. 

 Deacr. — Top of the head black, also the lores, and a streak from 

 the lower mandible ; back slaty, strongly tinged with green, and a 



