The Spice Finch 
Finch or Bird, etc. — have all been more or less frequently used, 
in some cases correctly, but very often very loosely. 
Mnnia pnnctidata = Common Spice, Spice, Nutmeg, and Bar-buastc j 
Fiiicli. Habitat. — Common over most jiarts of India and Ceylon. 
M. tupehi = Topela Finch. Habitat — S. China, Formosa, and Hainan 
M. nisoria ~ Malayan Spice Finch. 
Sjiice Fincli x licngalese Hybrid. 
The above cover the forms most commonly imported. 
.1/. Mniciiilata is, in my opinion, the handsomest of the three; 
the scalim^s of the under-parts, and the sharply defined colour 
areas of the other parts, toi^eth-er with the .slightly warmer tone 
of colour, make the Common Spice the most pretty of the 
various imjiorted Spice Finches. The prevailing" colou ation 
above is nutmeg', or chocolate-brown, washed with dark rufou- 
on the head; rump whitish buff; tail dark brown, yellowish 
externally: flights dark brown with reddish external margins; 
throat, front and sides of neck, and chest similar to upper 
surface; remainder of lower-surface white regularly scaled, 
except in the centre of abdomen, with blackish-brown. Beak 
upper mandible black, lower dark grey; legs grey; iris deep 
brown. Total lengiit barely 4^2 inches. 
I do not propose to give descriptions of the other variant 
forms, save to remark that topela and Jtisoria differ mainly from 
puuctulata in the scaling of the under-surface covering practi 
cally the whole area and being' more V shaped than crescentic 
in form. 
