546 
Birds of Celebes: Ploceidae. 
and, when done, his results are likely to cause still more trouble and annoyance 
to the next worker, who will perhaps supersede them with guesses of his own 
equally erroneous. The above subdivision of Munia formosana partakes perforce 
of this arbitrary character, because the writers find that they have not the right, 
by reason of insufficient material for comparison, to unite several “species” which 
they believe should be united, but which have such close relations with Celebes 
that they could not be ignored; the only plan, therefore, was to let them stand 
as supposed subspecies, though it remains for some one else, who, it is to be 
hoped, will have an eye for seasonal, individual and age variation as well, to 
show what geographical differences are prominent and where trinomials may 
be really well applied, if applied at all. 
Munia brmmeiceps was originally separated by Walden in virtue of its brown 
head. It was described from Macassar. There are two specimens from here 
in the Sara sin Collection and these have paler heads than others from N. and 
Central Celebes. One is younger than the other and has the head palest 
(walnut-brown), and the back more rufous and less purplish. Three more Northern 
Celebes examples have the head about as dark as in others from Cebu and 
Negros. Mr. Grant considers that “Af. hrunneiceps is merely the worn autumn 
plumage of M. jagori” (Ibis 1896, 554). Mr. Hartert has called the birds of 
the Natuna Islands hrunneiceps, but afterwards thought them to differ by their 
much darker heads and more rufous hacks (m 2). 
In Celebes the bird is rather common. It is one of the commonest species, 
as Mr. AVhitehead says, in North Borneo, and Dr. Sharpe (g 6) has suggested 
that it may have been introduced there from Celebes. It appears to us at least 
as probable that this Weaver-bird is a more recent addition to the Celebes avi- 
fauna, derived from Borneo, and more originally perhaps from the Indian countries, 
where M. atricapiUa differs in having less black or none at all on the belly. 
In Labuan, however, the bird seems to have made a recent incursion, and, ac- 
cording to Mr. Whitehead (gO), it has to a large extent driven away Munia 
Jvscans (Cass.) from the island. 
226. MUNIA PALLIDA Wall. 
Lombok White-headed Munia. 
Munia pallida (1) Wall., P. Z. S. 1863, 486, 495; (2) Platen, Puss and Meyer, Gefied. 
Welt 1879, 351 and 361; (3) Sharpe, Cat. B., XIII, 1890, 346; (4) M. &Wg., 
Abh. Mus. Dresd. 1896, Nr. 1, p. 13; (5) Hart., Nov. Zool. 1896, 154, 559, 594. 
a. Donacola pallida (1) Finsch, Neu Guinea 1865, 175. 
b. Amadina pallida (1) Gray, HL. H, 1870, 54, Nr. 6755; Posenb., Malay. Archip. 
1878, 273. 
Description. Wallace 7; Sharpe 3. 
Adult. Head all round, neck and upper breast white, shaded with brown on neck and 
