166 F. Finn — Ganeral Notes on Variation in Birds. [No. 3, 



" This" says Mr. Swailes, " I expected, as I have reared a laige number 

 during tlie past few years from both white, pied, and cinnamon Lesser 

 Red-polls, and have in-bred them, but have never had one vary in the 

 least from the normal colour." 



The Java Sparrow {Mnnia oryzivora) of the East- Indian Archipel- 

 ago has long been domesticated in Japan, and tame and wild specimens 

 are now both commonly kept as cage-birds. It is not a variable bird 

 in its wild state ; I have never seen any variation in wild birds of the 

 species, nor has Mr. W. Rutledge in his very large experience. 



The tame-bred Japanese birds may either be pure white or pied 

 with the normal colour. The dark colouring in this case is confined to 

 the upper plumage as a rule, but is not very regular. The head is 

 almost always pure white, and the tail also. The bill, feet, and eyelids 

 are normal. Dr. A. G. Butler, who has bred the white variety, found 

 that a young bird he reared was giey above till its first moult ; paired 

 with a normally coloured cock (which it did not desert for white ones) 

 it produced two young like its own first plumage, one like a young wild 

 bird, and two intermediate, all in the same brood. (Foreign Finches 

 in captivity, p. 262). 



Mr. F. Groser, who has also bred both forms in Calcutta, tells me 

 that they kept distinct whenever they could find mates of their own 

 colour. 



The tame white birds are larger and stronger than the wild type. 

 They are more phlegmatic, but also more spiteful ; the small sexual 

 distinction, in the stouter and larger head and bill of the male, is more 

 marked. The song of the white birds is quite different, according to 

 Dr. Butler. 



The Shakp-tailed Finch (UroIo7icha acuticauda) of Eastern Asia 

 has also long been domesticated in Japan, and its tame forms are the 

 '* Bengalee " of English fanciers. Dr. A. G. Butler, who in liis Foreign 

 Finches in Captivlly beautifully figures the three tame varieties, con- 

 siders with the late J. Abrahams that this little domestic Finch origi- 

 nated in a cross between the Striated Finch (Uroloncha striata) and the 

 Indian Silver- bill (Aidemosyne malaharica). I cannot agree with this, 

 as my observation of these birds leads me to conclude they are simply 

 derivatives of the Sharp-tailed Finch {Uroloncha acuticauda) ; I have 

 never seen one resembling the Silver-bill or the Striated Finch, and all 

 three species are well known to me in life as well as in the skin. 

 The late Dr. K. Russ, the greatest authority on small birds in captivity, 

 gave Uroloncha acuticauda as the ancestor of the domestic bird. Some 

 tame forms resemble the type, but they are generally pied with white, 

 the amount of this colour varying fiom a few white feathers to complete 



