824 The Sparrow-like Birds 



Munias, Mr. Gates says, associate in large flocks during the winter months, 

 but they separate and are no longer sociable in the breeding season, although 

 several nests may often be found near together. They construct large round 

 nests of grass with an opening at the side, placing them in bushes or clumps of 

 grass, and some species build about houses. The eggs are numerous, being 

 frequently six or more, and are invariably pure white. The Munias feed on the 

 ground or else cling to the heads of the flowering grasses or cereals and consume 

 immense quantities of grain. One of the typical members is the Java Sparrow 

 (Munia oryzivora), Rice-bird, or Paddy-bird, a native of Java, Sumatra, and 

 Malacca, but now introduced into many other countries, and also widely known 

 as a cage bird, especially the pure white, pink-billed form which has been developed 

 under domestication. These birds in a wild state are exceedingly destructive 

 to rice and are looked upon as great pests. The species shown in our plate is 

 the Brown-headed Munia (M. brunneiceps} of Borneo and Celebes, a handsome 

 little bird a little under four inches in length, in which the prevailing color above 

 is light rufous or chestnut, with head, neck, and throat sooty black or dusky 

 chocolate, and the under parts chestnut and black. 



THE TROUPIALS 



(Family Icteridce) 



The birds of this family are more widely known as the American Orioles, 

 American Starlings, or Hang-nests, but I gladly follow Mr. Ridgway's suggestion 

 of Troupial as a common name, since but few of them have much more than a 

 superficial resemblance to the Old World Orioles or Starlings, and only a small 

 proportion of them build pensile nests. They are small or mediiyn-sized birds, 

 with nine primaries and a more or less conical acute bill, in which the culmen 

 is usually somewhat elevated at the base, or sometimes expanded or swollen 

 into a conspicuous "casque" or "frontal shield." Their nearest relatives appear 

 to be the Finches, the only external character separating them being the absence 

 of bristles about the mouth. 



Bobolink. The group is exclusively American and a majority of the nearly 

 one hundred and fifty species are of tropical distribution. There are some eight 

 genera and about thirty forms found within the limits of the United States, 

 among them being some of our commonest and best-known birds. The Bobo- 

 link (Dolichonyx oryzivorus], so dear to the hearts of the people of New England, 

 is too well known to need description. They enter the Southern States the last 

 of March or the first of April, and by the middle of May have reached their sum- 

 mer homes in the meadows of the New England States. After rearing their 

 young the males lose their bright dress and exuberant song and appear in the 

 plain striped plumage of the females and young. Their only note now is a musi- 

 cal chink, and in July they begin the return journey, congregating in vast flocks 

 to feed upon the wild rice of Maryland and Virginia, where they are known as 



