2i6 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



THE STRIATED FINCH. 



Uroloncha slriata, LINN. 



THIS is an inhabitant of Central and Southern India and Ceylon,; 

 it is rather a pretty bird, though modestly coloured. 



The adult male is smoky brown above, streaked with white shaft 

 lines ; the feathers of the back with dusky subterininal bars and pale 

 tips ; wing-coverts slightly darker ; qiiills, blackish-brown, the inner 

 ones with white shaft-lines; croup white; upper tail-coverts blackish, 

 edged with brown ; tail feathers black ; forehead, lores, cheeks, throat 

 and chest black, the last mentioned with barely visible pale shaft- 

 lines ; breast and abdomen white ; lower flanks, thighs and under-tail 

 coverts dark reddish brown, with pale shaft-lines, whitish on the 

 flanks ; axillaries and under tail-coverts buffish-white ; edge of wing 

 mottled with black ; flight feathers below blackish, whitish along the 

 inner webs ; length five inches ; upper mandible dark leaden grey, the 

 lower one bluish with dark tip ; legs leaden grey ; iris reddish brown. 



The native names for this species are Shakari Munia and Tau-tsa, 

 according to Blyth. 



Jerdon says : "I observed this species in the Malabar coast and 

 the Wynaad, frequenting grain-fields, open spaces in the jungle, and 

 occasionally on the road-sides, and even in stable-yards, feeding on the 

 various kinds of grain and seeds. It lives in small communities of 

 six or eight, or more." 



In his Birds of India he says: "This species is most abundant 

 in the Malabar coast, where it is occasionally to be seen in vast flocks 

 feeding in the rice- fields. It also occurs sparingly in other parts of 

 India, in the Northern Circars, in lower Bengal, Arrakan, and Ceylon ; 

 but is replaced in the lower Himalayas, and throughout the Burmese 

 province, by the next species. It is also stated to occur in Java. 



" In Malabar it is a familiar bird, being constantly seen on the 

 road-side, about houses, and in stable yards ; builds in gardens and 

 orchards, making a large, loosely constructed nest of grass, and laying 

 four or five white eggs during the rains." 



Gates (Hume's Nests and Eggs, etc.) says : " The breeding 



