THE INDIAN SILVER-BILL. 205 



home sometimes confounded with the African species : during the last 

 year or two it has come more frequently. I am inclined to think that 

 this was one of a cage-full of birds brought home for me some years 

 ago by my sister ; but, at the time, I took no notes ; therefore it is 

 possible that I am thinking of some young Black-headed Mannikins 

 in that collection. 



The male above is light rufous brown, with slightly mottled 

 darker head, the bases of the feathers being blackish ; the croup and 

 upper tail-coverts are white, the latter black along the outer web, the 

 feathers of the former barred with brown at their junction with the 

 lower back ; tail feathers black, marked with ferruginous on the outer 

 web ; inner secondaries brown, with narrow terminal white fringes ; 

 remainder of flight feathers black; sides of face and under parts white, 

 the latter slightly tinted with buff, which becomes deeper and is 

 indistinctly barred with white at the sides : under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries pale buff, quills dusky, buff along the inner web. Length 

 4 inches. Upper mandible leaden grey, lower mandible lilacine 

 greyish ; legs greyish flesh-coloured ; iris dark brown. 



The female is rather smaller than the male, but very similar in 

 appearance. Mr. Abrahams writes: "The males are much larger 

 than the females, moreover, there is a distinctly yellowish tint about 

 the cock's plumage." My friend Dr. F. Buckland, who has, he 

 believes, had several examples of this Indian species, speaks well of 

 its song, which he says is very pleasing and somewhat quaint. Mr. 

 Abrahams gave me a pair about the middle of May, 1895. 



In India this bird has received the names of Chorga, Sar Munia, 

 Churchura, and Piduri. Colonel Sykes says of it: "These birds live 

 in small families, I have frequently found them in possession of the 

 deserted nests of the common Weaver-bird ; but their own nest is a 

 hollow ball, made of a delicate Agrostis, with a lateral hole for the 

 entrance of the birds. I took a nest in the fork of a branch of the 

 Mimosa arabica, it contained ten oblong, minute, white eggs, \i inch 

 long, by i' s inch in diameter. The cry of the bird is cheet, cheet, cheet, 

 uttered simultaneously by flocks in flight." 



F. Buchanan Hamilton says : " About Calcutta, this bird is 

 frequently tamed ; and a pair always being kept in the same cage, each 

 bird has a small cord fastened round its body, and the owner holding 

 one bird by the cord, throws up the other in the air, which always 

 returns and sits by its companion." 



Lieut. Burgess states that " These birds are often to be seen on 

 the ground, picking up grass-seeds, and so close together that several 



