MTJNIA. 599 



At Mandalay I found this species in small parties in the long grass, hy the side 

 of the large swamp hehind the city, and at Muangla in flocks hy the hedgerows. 



55. MUNIA PUNCTTJLAMA, Linn. 



Le Grosbee tacheie de Java, Briss. Orn., t. iii, p. 239, pi. xiii, fig. 2, 1760. 



Loxiapnnctularia,\swa..,^^i,i.^2.\,., t. i, p. 302, 1766 ; Lath., Gen. Hist. B., vol. v, p. 247, 1822. 



Fringilla punct.ularia, Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. xiii, p. 16, 1822. 



Fringilla nisoria, Temm., PI. Col., t. iii, pi. 500, fig. 2, 1825. 



Amadina punctulata, Hay, Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xiv, p. 554, 1845; Gray, Gen. B., vol. ii, 



p. 370, 1849 ; id., Handl. B., vol. ii, p. 56, 1870. 

 Munia punctularia, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus., As. Soc., Bengal, p. 117, 1849 ; Bonap. Consp., t. i, p. 452, 



1850; Horsf .& Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. Ind. Co., vol. ii, p. 605, 1858; Jerdon, B. Ind., 



vol. ii, p. 1355, 1833 ; Blyth & Walden, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xliv, 1875, extra 



No., p. 93. 

 Oxycerca nisoria, Gray, Gen. B., vol. iii, App. p. 10, 1849. 

 Uroloncha punctularia, Cab., Mus. Hein., th. i, p. 174, 1850. 



Munia punctulata, Hume, Stray Feathers, 1874, p. 481 ; id., Nests and Eggs, Ind. B., p. 444, 1875. 

 Lonchiira punctulata, Adam., Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 387; Ball, op. cit., 1874, p. 420; Hume, 



op. cit., 1875, p. 156. 



a. S Bhamo, 9th September 1868. 



c. 5 Bhamo, 22nd February 1868. 



d. t Momien, 1st June 1868. 



In small flocks among the shruhby jungle outside Bham6, but not common. I 

 obtained only one specimen of this bird at Momien, among some low shrubs. 



These birds would appear to present some slight differences on the ordinary race 

 of birds from India. The margins and centres of the thoracic and abdominal 

 feathers are reddish-brown and also larger and more elongately oval. They have 

 the greyish slightly mottled rump, but the tail-coverts are almost greenish-gamboge, 

 and the central tail feathers, which are rather ovately pointed, marked with the 

 same colour. In two of the specimens of II. punctularia in the Indian Museum 

 however, there is a faint indication of this. The shafts of all the feathers, with the 

 exception of those of the wings, tail, lores, cheek, ear-coverts and throat, are pale 

 coloured, giving the bkd a markedly striated appearance, also strongly marked in 

 other Museum specimens of this species. The markings differ from those of the 

 next species, M. imdtdata, in a very marked way. In the latter, the outHne of the 

 feather is defined by a brownish-black line, with a white external margin, and two 

 irregular transverse bands of the same colour divide the feather into two white spots. 

 These transverse bands are sometimes confined to one-half of the feather, and they 

 occasionally disappear or extend along each side of the shaft as a dark line. In 

 M. punctularia, on the other hand, the marginal dark line is pale reddish-brown, 

 and, as a rule, there is another of the same kind internal to it, and preserving the 

 outline of the feather. It is interesting to observe that while this may be regarded 

 as the general character of these feathers, those on the flanks and a few on the 

 breast show a decided tendency to cross-barring. The transition from the dark 



