160 CKATEROPODID^.

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. fy E> no. 615.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Silver-eared Mesia
breeds in the low-lands of Nepal, laying iu 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. Jerclon brought me two eggs from Darjeeling, which he
believed to belong to this species. They much resemble those of
LioiJiriv 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 oŁ the eggs.

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

Erora. Sikhim Mr. G-arnrnie writes :—" I have taken about half
a dozen nests of this bird. They closely resemble those of LiotJiriv
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 y^rds of a nest
of the other species.

" The eggs are usually four in number."

Other eggs obtained by Mr. G-ammie 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 0*9, 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.—OEk>,