on "The Bengalee." 61


and he writes of it in the article under the scientific name of

Uroloncha striata var.


I do not wish to differ from such a good authority as

Dr. Butler, to whom I would like to take this opportunity of

acknowledging my grateful thanks for much useful information

obtained from his writings, but I venture to think that more

knowledge of this common but pleasing little cage - bird is

required before we can settle its exact affinities, and it also

appears to me that it requires a more definite name.


In Dr. Butler's "Foreign Finches in Captivity," (1894),

the bird is called :


"The Bengalee, Aidemosyne malabarica x Uroloncha

striata, Linn.,"

and a very beautiful coloured plate by Mr. Frohawk faces page

222, with a picture of each of the three varieties.


In "Foreign Bird Keeping," Part I., p. 52, Dr. Butler uses

the same names for this bird.


In Cassell's " Canaries and Cage Birds," the late Mr.

August F. Wiener, on page 385, calls this bird :


"The White and Variegated Bengalese ( ' Mnnia acuti-

cauda ? Mtinia striata ?J, Japan.

Spermestes actdicauda (Russ).

English dealers' name — White Bengalese.

German name — ' Japanesische Movcheu.'

French name — ' Muscades Blanches,' ' Bengalis

Blancs,' "

And he gives coloured figures of two varieties, under the names

" Pied Mauuikin (Fawn and White),

Pied Manuikiu (Chestnut and White)."

I am interested to know whether anyone has actually

succeeded in producing " the Bengalee " from typical Uroloncha

striata, or by crossing U. striata with any other species, and also

to what extent the three chief varieties of "the Bengalee" breed

true ?


As regards this second question, Mr. Wiener (loc. cit. p.

386) writes, " It should be stated that in the same nest may be

found pure white and piebalds of various shades," but he does

not mention the colour of the parent birds. While Miss Emily



