THE SPICE FINCH. 225 



" The Spotted or Barred Munia is found throughout India and Ceylon, 

 somewhat rare in the extreme south, common in the north, and spreading 

 into Assam and Burmah, as far as Tenasserim.* It is somewhat local 

 in its distribution, but, where met with, is there tolerably abundant. 

 I have seen it on the edges of the Neilgherries, and in various parts 

 of the Carnatic and Central India, as well as in Bengal, but it does 

 not occur in the Malabar coast. It is occasionally found in grassy or 

 bushy ground, and Buchanan Hamilton states it to live in thickets of 

 Hugla grass (Typha elephantina), near villages where small grains are 

 sown ; but more frequently it occurs near cultivated ground, affecting 

 mango groves, or patches of tree jungle. It builds in thorny bushes, 

 chiefly about fields, and makes a large nest of very fine grass, or not 

 unfrequently of the flowering tufts of some Saccharum, which I have 

 often seen it conveying to its nest ; and I have always found the nest 

 solitary, contrary to Mr. Layard's observations, who states that he has 

 seen thirty or forty nests in one tree, and that in one instance he 

 found one structure containing several nests. The eggs, of course, are 

 pure fleshy white, usually four to six in number. At Thayet-myo, I 

 found it building in a hole in the thatch of my bungalow. Blyth states 

 that this bird, which is very commonly caged, is known in Bengal as 

 the Nutmeg-bird, from the peculiar mottling of its breast." 



Mr. Allan Hume gives the following very complete series of notes 

 on this species : 



" The Spotted Munia breeds throughout India and Burmah, alike 

 in the plains and in the hills, up to the elevations of from 4,000 to 

 5,000 feet, but as a rule only in well- wooded and watered tracts. In 

 the more arid portions of the North- Western Provinces, the Punjab, 

 Rajpootana, and Sind, it is but rarely, and in many localities never seen. 



" I have invariably found nests in July and August, both in the 

 plains and in the Himalayas, but in the Nilghiris the breeding season 

 seems to last, in one part or other of these hills, from February to 

 September. 



"The nests are, as a rule, placed at heights of from 5 to 7 feet, 

 and very rarely above 12 feet from the ground, in thick thorny bushes 

 or trees. In the plains the various species of acacias, in the hills the 

 barberries, are much resorted to as nesting sites. Occasionally the 

 nest is placed in very unexpected situations, in and about houses, as 

 amongst creepers trained against the verandah trellis, in a large straw 

 scarecrow placed in a garden close to the house, in an old thatched 

 roof, &c. 



* Here he is, of course, including the race subsequently named M. siibiindulata. A.G.B. 



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