offer, especially the young ones, a favourite dish, on which account they 

 are snared in large numbers. 



" I have several times found the nest of Munia orysivora ; sometimes at 

 the summit of various trees, sometimes among the numerous creepers 

 which cover the stems of the Areng palms. They vary in size and form 

 according to their position : whilst those attached to trees are for the 

 most part larger and possess, on the average, a fairly regularly half ball 

 shaped form, those placed among creepers on the stems of Areng palms 

 are smaller and of a less decided, irregular form, only slightly hollowed 

 out in the centre. All nests however are almost exclusively composed of 

 the stalks of various grasses which are not very firmly twined together, 

 so that the whole build is of no great solidity. The number of the 

 shining white, somewhat long-shaped eggs varies between sis and eight 

 in the nests found by me. Their diameter lengthwise amounts to 

 21 mill., their greatest diameter through the middle 14 millim." 



Mr. R. Swinhoe saw it on the "Amoy, in flocks, and occasionally met 

 with it during winter and spring," and he says it is " wild at Hong Kong 

 during the early spring, and found about Canton and Shanghai. A South 

 China bird, extending to the Straits of Malacca and Java." 



Mr. E. T^ewton procured it in the Mauritius, and Dr. Uartlaub in his 

 ' Birds of Madagascar,' says : — " Introduced from India to Bourbon and 

 the Mauritius, but has become rai'e on the former island, where it is 

 called Calfat. Pollen saw this bird building in the niches of the fa9ade 

 of the town council-house at St. Denys, together with our house- 

 sparrow." 



In Mr. R. B. Sharpe's paper 'On the Birds of Labuan,' he tells us 

 that " Governor Ussher observes " : — " This bird was introduced to the 

 island by Mr. Low ; it has thriven, and is now in prodigious numbers." 



Mr. James Mottly of Benjermassing, South-Eastern Borneo says they 

 are " Rather common here, and exceedingly destructive to the rice-fields, 

 feeding on them in vast flocks. These birds are taken in thousands by 

 the natives, and are a favourite article of food, being exceedingly fat. 

 In confinement they become very familiar, and breed readily. I have a 



