244 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



the hind-breast and abdomen duller than in the male. Moreover, as 

 originally pointed out to me by Mr. Abrahams, the beak is narrower 

 at the base and more tapering than in the male. 



As the female, from which I have taken the preceding description, 

 died at the age of eighteen years, it is possible that she may be a 

 little darker than younger birds ; but the sexes are always easy to 

 distinguish by the colouring of the head alone. 



Young birds are rufous-brown, yellower on the croup and upper 

 tail-coverts ; the face and chin whitish ; the under parts slightly paler 

 than the upper. 



The Malays call this bird " Petap Whobun" ; in Sumatra, however, 

 it bears the name of "Pipit" and in Java " Bondol." 



Edward Bartlett gives the following notes respecting M. maja : 

 " The White-headed Munia, or so called Maja Finch, appears to be 

 one of the earliest and best known species of this insular group of 

 Asiatic Weaver-birds, and from a very remote period it has been 

 brought to Europe, in great numbers, by trading and other vessels, 

 which touch annually at many of the islands in the Straits of Malacca, 

 or Malayan Peninsular, where this bird abounds, especially in those 

 islands where rice and smaller cereals are cultivated to any great extent. 



" This bird, like all its congeners, is exclusively a dry seed eater, 

 and congregates in enormous flocks on the paddy-fields when the seed 

 is ripe, and after the harvest season, when the wild seeds have 

 attained maturity, it finds subsistence until the following harvest. It 

 is at this period of its existence (and after the breeding season), that 

 it is procured in vast numbers, and shipped to various parts of the 

 globe ; the greater number come to Europe, although the natives 

 retain them as cage pets, among many others of the same family. 



" Lieut. H. R. Kelham tells us : " This little White-headed 

 Munia is very common throughout the west of the peninsula, including 

 the islands of Penang and Singapore. When the grain is ripe, it is 

 to be seen in countless numbers, in the paddy-fields. On being 

 disturbed, it rises with' a feeble, twittering cry, the flocks whirling 

 and twittering over the top of the paddy, like clouds of dust on a 

 road when the wind is blowing. It is commonly known in the Straits 

 as the ' cigar bird ' a capital name ; for when flying, its white head, 

 brown body, and small size give it very much the appearance of a 

 cigar with the white ash on it." 



Reichenbach remarks in his Singvogel, published in 1861, that 

 " these birds have often been brought to us in modern times from 

 East and South India, more especially from Sumatra and Borneo. 



