MUNI A. 129 



726. Munia atricapilla (Vieill.). The Chestnut-bellied 

 Munia. 



Munia rubronigra, Hodys., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 353. 



Munia atricapilla ( Vieill.), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 698. 



According to Mr. Hodgson, the Chestnut-bellied Munia breeds 

 in the lower valleys and cultivated plains of Nepal in open jungle 

 or brushwood, forming a large globular nest in the midst of 

 bamboos, thick bushes or grass, on or close to the ground, com- 

 posed of dry grass or straw loosely twisted together, and lined 

 with finer rice-straw. It lays from June to August four to six 

 small, oval, pure white eggs. 



Dr. Jerdon says : " According to Mr. Frith the nest is ordi- 

 narily placed in a babool tree in Lower Bengal, solitarily, and is 

 composed of a large ball of the tufts of Saccharum spontaneum. I 

 have always found its nest fixed to reeds or long grass, and suspect 

 that Mr. Frith must have been mistaken in the identity of the 

 owner of the nest above noticed, the more so because that is ex- 

 actly the character, both as to materials and site, of the nest of the 

 next species (punctulata) noticed." 



Since the Rough Draft of this work was published, I have 

 myself taken several nests in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens ; and 

 Mr. J. C. Parker has taken many more in the same place and has 

 furnished me with numerous notes on the nidification of this 

 species. 



He says : " I found a nest of the Chestnut-bellied Munia in 

 the Calcutta Botanical Gardens on the 27th of July, 1874. The 

 nest was fixed as described by Dr. Jerdon, to the stems of long 

 grass near the top, and was a very conspicuous object, easily to be 

 seen a long way off. The bird was on the nest, but the eggs were 

 quite fresh, and though there were only five it is quite possible 

 that had I waited more would have been laid." 



Again he writes : " On the 13th July, 1875, 1 took a nest 

 with six eggs, and on the 20th August another with five eggs, 

 of Munia atricapilla in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. This 

 year the birds could not breed in the long grass, owing to the 

 fact of there being none to build in, a thorough reform in the 

 garden arrangements having been carried out this year. The two 

 nests were placed, one on a species of prickly date-palm, the other 

 on another species of palm about six feet high, an Oreodoxa 1 

 think. 



" I could easily have procured the bird in the first nest (as she 

 allowed me to approach within a few inches of the entrance), but 

 I was prevented from doing so by the number and size of the 

 terrible needle-like thorns that protected the nest on every side 

 a perfect forest of bayonets." 



Lastly, he says : " I went over on Monday, the 29th September, 

 1875, to the Gardens, and I was rewarded by another nest and 

 three eggs of Munia atricapilla. The nest was in a young pine- 

 tree, forming one of the same avenue (leading to the great Banian) 



TOL. II. 9 



