THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OP BENGAL. 257 



701.— Munia striata, Lin. (28.) 



Although I do not separate specifically the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Munias, it is yet necessary to explain that not only do 

 these differ somewhat from the Southern and Central Indian 

 birds, but also inter se. The Andaman bird averages slightly 

 smaller than the Indian striata, and it entirely wants those pale 

 shafts to the feathers of the whole interscapulary region and 

 rump which characterize the Indian birds : moreover the upper 

 tail coverts in the Andaman bird are all rather conspicuously 

 margined with a somewhat rufous brown. 



The dimensions of the Andaman bird are as follow : — Length, 

 4-25 to 4-75 ; expanse, 6 to 6'25 ; wing, 1-82 to 2 ; tail, 1'62 to 

 1-75 ; tarsus, 0*5 to 0'55. 



The irides are reddish brown ; the upper mandible black, and 

 the lower leaden blue ; the legs and feet plumbeous green or green- 

 ish horny. 



The Nicobar bird is somewhat smaller still, but has a 

 proportionally longer tail, it differs from the Andaman bird 

 in having faint trace of striee on the back, and in havino- 

 the whole of the feathers of the breast paler colored, and con- 

 spicuously though narrowly margined with pale rufous brown, 

 much as is the case in acuticauda. 



The dimensions of this bird. Length, 4*25 to 4'5 ; expanse, 6 

 to 6-12 ; wing, 1-82 ; tail, 1*75 to 19 ; tarsus, 0-5. The irides 

 are brown, bill and legs much as in the other, but the lower man- 

 dible a brighter blue. 



Of the former we preserved ten (and later received fourteen) , 

 of the latter only four specimens ; should the differences I have 

 indicated, which hold good for all my specimens, prove univer- 

 sally constant, the Andaman bird may stand as nonstriata, and 

 the Nicobar one as semistriata. 



Mr. Davison remarks: — tl These little birds occur in large flocks 

 about the paddy flats, and I have also seen them in the secondary 

 jungle. I have found them most numerous in a clearing called 

 bamboo flat below Mount Harriet. They must breed very early, 

 or I should say late, for when I arrived at the Andamans in 

 December the young had left the nests ; several old nests that 

 I found were large globular structures made of grass, with the 

 entrance placed at one side and drawn out into a short neck, in 

 fact very similar to the nest of E. amandava. At the Nicobars 

 they are found about the cotton fields and gardens, but usually 

 only in small flocks, though I have also seen them in pairs and 

 in small parties of three or four."" 



