1255. Zosterops aureiventris mesoxantha

(1255) Zosterops aureiventris mesoxantha Salvadori.
THE KAREN GOLDEN-VENTED WHITE-EYE.
Zosterops aureiventris mesoxantha, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. iii, p. 365.
This appears to be the hill form of the preceding bird, inhabiting the hill ranges of Central and Eastern Burma from the Southern Shan States to the mountains of Tenasserim and Siam, South to Selangor.
So far as I know the eggs of this race of White-Eye have never been taken until this year (1933), when Mr. T. R. Livesey found them breeding freely during April in Sintaung in the Southern Shan States, and obtained a fine series of nests and eggs of which he sent me four clutches containing four, three, three, and two eggs respectively, together with some beautiful photographs.
The nests are quite typical White-Eyes' nests, most of them pendent from small forks or twigs of bushes in thick scrub-jungle or dense undergrowth. One, however, is placed in among the upright spiky shoots of a large-leafed shrub quite close to the ground. In appearance they are small neat cups, possibly rather less com¬pactly put together than those of the palpebrosa group, but made of similar materials and about the same in size.
The eggs, which in full clutches number three or four, are quite typical, but on an average slightly deeper blue than those of the other White-Eyes, though, doubtless, they soon fade to the same pale tint.
Twelve eggs average 15.5 x 11.8 mm. ; maxima 16.2 x 12.0 -and 15.5 x 12.1 nun. ; minima 14.1 x 11.8 and 15.2 x 11.4 mm.