62 How to Sex Cage Birds. 



Spick Bum; (Munia punctulata). 



No difference of plumage has been noted in the sexes. The 

 female in life is doubtless a trifle smaller, although from measure- 

 ment of skins the Museum Catalogue makes it half an inch longer 

 (skins are frequently distorted by the taxidermist) ; the beak is of 

 the same character as in Uroloncha, and doubtless differs sexually 

 in the same manner. 



A comparison of this species .with Amadina erythrocephala will 

 show that the Mannikins are simply duller coloured Grass- Finches ; 

 the pattern of the two is not very dissimilar. 



Pectoral Finch (Munia pectoralis). 



The female is rather slimmer than the male, and has the white 

 breast regularly barred with black. 



Ykllow-rumped Finch (Munia jlaviprymna). 



The hen is slimmer than the cock, with slightly narrower beak; 

 her head is less purely white ; and her chest perhaps more tinted 

 with tawny. I secured three pairs early in 1906, and shortly after- 

 wards two more pairs were given to me. 



White-headed Mannikin (Munia maja). 



The male has the beak a little more swollen towards the base 

 than the female ; she»is altogether a darker bird, the head suffused 

 with pale vinous-brown; the upper parts deeper chocolate-brown, 

 this colour extending right up to the neck; the throat and chin 

 hardly paler than the breast, which is dusky vinous-brown, grading 

 into the black of abdomen. 



Black-headed Mannikin (Munia atricapilla). 



The female has a slightly longer and narrower beak than the 

 male, and shows less black on the abdomen ; she is also a rather 

 smaller bird. 



Chestnut-breasted Finch (Munia castaneithorax). 



The female is smaller than the male ; the beak is weaker, finer 

 towards tip, and paler in colour ; the chestnut on the breast is said 

 to be paler, but this character varies, the broken black belt border- 

 ing it is narrower, and the black bars on the flanks narrower ; the 

 head browner, less distinctly mottled, the back of the rump and the 

 upper tail-coverts straw coloured, whereas in the male the rump is 

 washed with bright cinnamon fading off into ochreous on the upper 

 tail coverts ; the tail more ashy. 



Three-coloukkd Mannikin (Munia malacca). 



The beak of the female is weaker and the whole bird smaller than 

 in the male ; her head is dead black, not -lossy as in the male; and 

 the entire colouring less bright, the flights greyer, the rump paler; 

 the upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers duller and with less opal- 

 escent 'doss. 



