132 ON A MUNIA.-SPECIES FROM SUMATRA. 



NOTE XXIII. 



ON A CHESTNUT- AND BLACK WEAVER FINCH 

 FROM SUMATRA 



BT 



J. BÜTTIKOPER. 



While occupied with a revision of the genus Munia in 

 the Leyden Museum , I met with two specimens of black- 

 headed chestnut-brown specimens from Sumatra. One of 

 them is said to be a male, the other a female, and both 

 are making the impression of adult birds. Both specimens , 

 as far as I am aware the first ones of this group ever 

 recorded from Sumatra , are the representatives of Munia 

 atricapilla (Vieill.) from the Indian Continent and Malacca 

 but may be easily distinguished from the latter and also 

 from the Bornean birds by the abdomen , vent and under 

 tail-coverts being maroon-brown instead of black. In the 

 female some of the feathers on these parts are tipped with 

 sooty brown. Another distinguishing character is the straw- 

 yellow tinge of the central pair of tail-feathers and the 

 tips of the longest upper tail-coverts. Besides these two 

 specimens our collections contain another brown-bellied 

 specimen from Canton (China) which only differs from 

 those from Sumatra in having no straw-yellow on the 

 tail. This specimen showing evident marks of its having 

 been kept in captivity, it is not out of doubt whether it 

 is of real Chinese origin or not. 



It would be worth the trouble to make out with the 

 aid of numerous specimens, if in the Sumatran represen- 

 tatives of this group this peculiar character is constant, as 

 in this case they would belong to Edwards' „Chinese 

 sparrow" = Amadina sinensis Gray (see Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. Xni, p. 334, footnote). 



Leyden Museum, April 1892. 



Notes from the Leyden JMuseum, V^ol. X!1"V. 



