49 



brown, tinged with buff ; sides like the back ; belly, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts 

 black ; axillaries and under surface of wing yellowish-buff ; iris dark brown ; bill plum" 

 beous ; legs slaty black : length 4'1, wing 2'1, tail 1'45, tarsus 0"6, eulmen 0'45. 



Female. Similar, but much paler ; the creamy white of the hind neck gradually forms a pale 

 greyish band, which blends on to the mantle ; the black mesial stripe much more re- 

 stricted than in the male. 



Young. Similar to that of llunia ferruginosa, but paler, especially on the under-parts. 



Observ. In the adult male the crown of the head and cheeks become almost white ; the 

 black mesial band expands on the chest, and gradually decreases towards the middle of 

 the abdomen. The female is generally more ashy-brown on the hind neck ; the black 

 mesial stripe restricted to the centre of the abdomen, and scarcely reaches to the chest, 

 which js rather more ashy than that of the male. 



The moulting in the young is gradual and gives it a mottled appearance ; the mesial 

 stripe being dull blackish-brown, interspersed with buffish-white feathers. 



The White-headed Munia, or so-called Maja Finch, appears to be one of 

 the earliest and best known species of this insular group of Asiatic Weaver- 

 birds, and from a very remote period it has been brought to Europe in 

 gTeat numbers by trading and other vessels which touch annually at 

 many of the islands in the Straits of Malacca, or Malayan Peninsula, where 

 this bird abounds, especially in those islands where rice and smaller cereals 

 are cultivated to any great extent. 



This bird, like all its congeners, is exclusively a dry seed eater, and con- 

 gregates in enormous flocks on the paddy-fields when the seed is ripe, and 

 after the harvest season, when the wild seeds have attained maturity, it 

 finds subsistence until the following harvest. It is at this period of its 

 existence (and after the breeding season) that it is procured in vast num- 

 bers and shipped to various parts of the globe ; the greater number come to 

 Europe, although the natives retain them as cage pets among many others 

 of the same family. 



Lieut. H. R. Kelham tells us : " This little White-headed ilunia is very 

 common throughout the west of the peninsula, including the islands of 

 Penang and Singapore. When the grain is ripe it is to be seen in countless 

 numbers in the paddy-fields. On being disturbed, it rises ^-ith a feeble, 

 twittering cry, the flocks ^^hirling and twirling over the top of the paddy 

 like clouds of dust on a road when the wind is blowing. It is commonly 

 known in the Straits as the ' cigar bird ' — a capital name ; for when flying, 



