NEW SPECIES OF COCCOTIIRAUSTES. 



155 



of internal structure (in the larger divisions) were eked out by those of hahit 

 and manner. But to return : — Munia, the name we have assigned to our 

 new genus, 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. 



The species are solitary in regard to nidification ; but, after the 

 breeding season they are all gregarious in a greater or less degree. They 

 are exclusively graminivorous, feeding on hard grass, seeds or cerealia, 

 according as one or the other are procurable ; and they fix their large 

 globular nests either among the spiny leaves of the palm trees or the 

 thick interlaced branches of the lesser bamboos. 



But there is no weaving or sewing employed in the structure of the 

 nest. It is^merely a large ball, laid against or upon naturally blended 

 branches or stiff leaves, and having a small round entrance either on 

 the side or at top. The eggs are many, and in Rubroniger of a bluish 

 white colour. These birds are easily tamed and caged, but they have 

 no song. 



The whole three species are migratory, appearing in June and depart- 

 ing in November. Many of them breed in the Residency grounds, and 

 solitarily so far as I have observed. The nest is composed of grass fibres, 

 or leaves of the Pinus Longifolia, and is usually constructed in the midst of 

 the small Chinese bamboo or of the dog-rose. The male and female labour 

 at the work with equal assiduity, and share equally the task of rearing the 

 young. In winter and spring they resort to the lower region, returning to 

 us to breed just as the rains set in, and departing with their young so ^on 

 as the rice crop has been got in ; after which the open cultivated country 

 is perfectly bare for some months. 



PvRRHULINiE. GcnuS PyRRHULA. 



1st species. P. Nipalensis, nobis. 



Form as in Erylhroccphala ; but the bill grosser with the tomial line 

 of its upper mandible less even, and the tail still more conspicuously 



