54 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
Very different from the quarrelsome Weavers are their 
near relatives, the Munias, thick-billed little Finches of 
clumsy form, but very sleek and richly-coloured plumage, 
which is alike in the sexes. They are usually small, but 
there is one fairly large species ; in disposition they are 
good-natured and very sociable. 
THe Java Sparrow (Munia oryzibara),” although a 
foreign bird, is well known in India, being called Ram- 
gora in Bengal. Its native home is Java, but it has 
been introduced into many other parts of the world, 
accidentally or by intention, and has been wild for half 
a century in Madras, In the eastern islands where it is 
most common it is extremely destructive to paddy, 
whence it is sometimes called the rice-bird; but it is 
not known to do any harm in India. Very many are 
imported as cage-birds, and usually come in very fine 
condition, as they bear captivity well. The bird is 
figured on Plate VI (Fig. 3), but no uncoloured picture 
can do justice to the exquisite lavender-grey of its 
plumage, so sleek that the bird looks as if modelled in 
wax, while its rose-red beak is as delicately shaded as 
the petal of a flower. The cock and hen are alike as far 
as plumage goes, but if several are examined there is a 
good chance of getting a pair if one picks out one 
specimen with a noticeably big bill and another with a 
perceptibly smaller one. As they are very cheap, and 
several pairs will live and breed in the same aviary, it 
is just as well to buy half-a-dozen at once, if they are 
wanted for aviary purposes. For cages the sex does not 
matter, as both are equally pretty 
