MUNIA KELAARTI. 



(THE HILL-MUNIA*.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Amadina pectoralis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1851, xx. p. 178; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 126 



(1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 258. 

 Munia Maarti, Blyth, MS.; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 356 (1863); Blyth, Ibis, 1867, 



p. 299 (orig. descrip.) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 464. 

 The Nuiuara-Elliya Finch, Kelaart ; Ortolan, Hill Paddy-bird, Europeans in Ceylon. 

 We-kurulla, lit. " Paddy-bird," Sinhalese ; Tinna kuruvi, Tamil (Layard) ; Pastro de Neli, 



Portuguese in Ceylon. 



Ad. supra chocolatino-bnmneus, pilei dorsique plumis angustissime inedialiter albido linearis : alis nigricantibus, 

 tectrieibus interioribus secundariisque brunneis : uropygio et supracaudalibus nigris, scapis albis, et subtermina- 

 liter macula alba ornatis, supracaudalibus longioribus aureo-fulvo terminatia : cauda saturate brunnea : loris, facie 

 laterali et gula nigris : regione parotid postica et colli lateribus pallide cervino-brunneis angustissime medialiter 

 albo lineatis : corpore reliqao subtiis albo nigroque maculatim marmoratis, plumis albis nigro late fasciatis et 

 marginatis : subcaudalibus nigris late albo medialiter lineatis : rostro nigro, rnandibula basaliter cyauescente : 

 pedibus fuscescenti-plumbeis : iride brunnea. 



Adult male and female. Length 4-65 to 4-8 inches ; wing 2-1 to 2-25 ; tail l - 6 to 1*8 ; tarsus 0-5 to 06 ; middle toe 

 and claw 0-75 ; bill at front 0-5, to gape - 45 to 0-48. 



In this species the bill is somewhat flatter above and the culmen less arched than in the other Ceylonese members 

 of the genus. 



Iris sepia-brown ; bill blackish leaden, bluish at the base of lower mandible ; legs and feet plumbeous, in some with a 

 greenish tinge. 



Forehead, cheeks, throat, and fore neck glossy brownish black, paling on the head, and changing on the hind neck, 

 back, and scapulars into a woody or fulvous brown ; the feathers on these parte with whitish or fulvous stria? 

 (according to the hue of the back), those of the sides of the neck and under surface likewise with white stria? ; 

 wings, upper tail-coverts, and tail brownish black, the tail-coverts with central arrow-headed white spots, the 

 longer feathers glistening ochre-yellow at the tips ; below the ear-coverts the sides of the neck are pale fawn, 

 continued down to the sides of the breast ; breast and lower parts white with black edges, and two more or less 

 oval black spots on each side of the shaft, imparting a curious chequered appearance ; the black is of greater 

 extent on the flanks ; under tail-coverts black, with broad white centres, which in some specimens take the form 

 of bars. In specimens in abraded plumage the under surface is much lighter. 



Young. Upper surface uniform dark brown, wanting both the stria? of the back and the white barring of the upper 

 tail-coverts ; upper tail-coverts plain brown ; throat black, barred with white ; fore neck and under surface tawny 

 fulvous, with iudistiuct black luuulatious ; under tail-coverts buff, barred with black. 



Obs. This species was at first confounded by Blyth with M. pectoralis from the hills of Southern India, inasmuch as 

 he was under the impression that it was the adult of that Finch, to the young of which Jerdon had given this 

 title. He afterwards gave it a MS. name, and in his paper on Ceylonese birds (' Ibis' 1867) fully described a 

 specimen of it. It is, in fact, the Ceylonese representative of M. pectoralis. This latter, which is found in the 



* I have chosen the term Munia for the English name of these little " Amaduvads." It is employed by Jerdon, in 

 his ' Birds of India,' as being, I conclude, shorter than Amaduvad, the term generally applied to the genus by Europeans in 

 India. Hodgson first gave the name as a generic one, and remarks in the ' Asiatic Besearches ' concerning it : — " Munia, 

 the name we have assigned to these birds, is well known to the Tarai and to the Hills as the generic appellation of 

 several species of tiny gross bills, distinguished for their familiarity with man, their gregarious habits, their depredations 

 upon the rice-crops, and their ingenious nests." 



