NOTES ON THE PLOCEID/E.


By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S.,


Deputy Superintendent Indian Museum.


ii. ON THE INTERBREEDING OF CERTAIN SPECIES


OF MUNIA.


In January, 1S97, I procured alive, in Tiretta Bazaar,

Calcutta, a specimen of a Munia agreeing with Munia malacca

in its general characters, but having the white portions of the

plumage suffused with chestnut, and during the present 3^ear

I have detected in cages of M. malacca many specimens showing

more or less of this rufous colouration below, and have secured

some for the Museum.


It is this occasional variation of the white lower parts, no

doubt, which is alluded to by Mr. E. Bartlett (Monograph of the

Weaver-birds, &c.), under this species, in his description of the

female, which he says, has “the white chest and sides strongly

tinged with creamy-buff.” But among the rufous-washed speci¬

mens procured by me most turned out to be males, while even

the small series at present possessed by this Museum of the pure

M. malacca shows that the underparts of the female are white

like those of the male, as stated by Dr. R. B. Sharpe (Brit. Mus.

Cat. Birds, vol. XIII, p. 331) and implied by Dr. A. G. Butler

(Finches and Weavers in Captivity, p. 244).


This colouration is evidently not a stain (like the rusty tinge

on the under-plumage of waterfowl, which I have seen assumed

in a single night by a male Pintail (Daftla acuta) kept unpinioned

on the Museum tank, which he used to leave and return to). I

conclude this to be the case from finding the other birds in the

cages with the tinted ones to be clean and pure white, and from

the fact that immature birds still showing the light-brown

plumage vioult out either rusty or pure white below, according

to the colours shown at first. I have tested this in three speci¬

mens kept by Major Alcock in his aviary, two of which have

proved to be hens, and one a cock.


This departure from the typical colouration of M. malaccy

is no doubt caused by casual interbreeding with the nearly allied

M. atricapilla , and a similar explanation would no doubt apply

to the yellow-marked specimens of Plocetts atrigula alluded to

above. It would, however, be satisfactor}^ to have the fact placed

beyond doubt by pairing the two species in captivity, which

might easily be done. At the same time, in confirmation of the

interbreeding theory, it may be mentioned that Dr. Butler in the



