220 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



under tail-coverts reddish-tawny, with white shaft-streaks ; the axillaries 

 pale tawny-buff; the feathers of the under wing-coverts brown at base, 

 otherwise whitish ; the quills tawny-buff along the inner web. Length 

 4J inches. Upper mandible blackish, lower mandible leaden-grey ; legs 

 leaden-grey ; iris dark brown. 



Inhabits the Himalayas from Massuri to Sikhim, through Assam 

 and Burmah to Malacca and Sumatra : the native names are said to 

 be " Samprek-pho " and " JVamprek" also in Penang Petap. 



According to Jerdon, this species chiefly differs from the Striated 

 Finch in the lineolated character of the white under parts ; he says 

 also : 



" In the Sikhim Himalayas it ascends to at least 5,000 feet, and 

 is tolerably abundant near cultivated lands. Its nest is of the usual 

 structure, large and loosely made of fine grass, and there are generally 

 five or six white eggs. I found it far from rare on the Khasia Hills, 

 whence it had not been previously sent, and it probably will be found 

 all through the intervening country to Mergui (where Blyth obtained 

 it), in suitable localities." 



According to Heifer it is common near Mergui, in Tenasserim, in 

 large flocks, and is always on the ground. 



Gates gives the following notes in his edition of Hume's JVests 

 and Eggs, etc.: "Writing from Sikhim, Mr. Gammie says: "A nest 

 taken out of a small tree, some ten feet from the ground, in the valley 

 of the Ryang, about 2,500 feet above the level of the sea, on the 2oth 

 of June, contained six hard-set eggs. For so diminutive a bird the 

 nest is enormous ; externally it is five inches in diameter, and seven 

 in height, and even the egg cavity was six inches deep and more than 

 two inches in diameter inside ; but the actual entrance was, of course, 

 much smaller. It is entirely composed of grass, the basal portion and 

 the exterior at the back, where it was wedged against the stem of the 

 tree, of very coarse and rough grass, much of it broad-bladed, the upper 

 portion and the whole of the interior of very fine grass." 



Later, he remarks : " This Munia lays between the middle of 

 June and the middle of August, at elevations of from 2,000 to 4,000 

 feet. It builds from six to twenty feet from the ground, in open 

 country, in shrubs and small trees. The nest is globular, entirely made 

 of the grass-panicles, from which the seeds have dropped, intermixed 

 with a few bamboo leaves, and measures, externally, about six inches 

 in height, by the same in width, while the cavity is about three inches 

 in diameter, by the same depth from the lower edge of entrance. The 

 entrance is in the side, close to the top, with a quantity of the grass, 



