380 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology . 
musical trill-note. It generally prefers selecting a building-site 
in the neighbourhood of human dwellings, placing its Wren¬ 
like nest in some bush five or six feet from the ground, often 
in quite exposed places ; but being such a small, delicate bird, 
and so gentle and familiar in its habits, it is protected by the 
Chinese, and looked upon as the harbinger of good. It is known 
in Amoy as the O-pe-la; in Formosa, as the Aw-tsew-pe-la. In 
its disproportionately large and not very elegant nest it seldom 
lays more than three eggs, quite white when blown, but when 
fresh, of a pale ochreous pink. The males and females are similar 
in plumage; the young are of a light olive-brown, whitish on 
the under parts, but always having the white rump-band. 
This species has been semidomesticated in Japan, where it 
breeds, like the Canary, in confinement, and produces every 
variety of albinism and melanism. There are several living 
examples of these varieties at present in the gardens of the 
Zoological Society of London. 
M. molucca (L.) and M. striata (L.) are closely allied to this 
species, but distinct. 
92. Munia topela, n. sp. Chinese, Topela. 
M. malacca of my Amoy and Canton Lists, Ibis, 1860, p. 61. 
& 1861, p. 45. 
The two species to which this bird is most nearly allied are 
the M. pundularia (.Fringilla nisoria , Temm.) of Malacca, and 
the M. undulata of India. The former is distinguished from 
the latter by the whitish grey on the rump, upper tail-coverts, 
and tail, which is represented by glistening fulvous in the 
other species. In ours the upper tail-coverts are greenish yel¬ 
low, and the tail washed with yellowish green. The upper 
parts are a dull brown, instead of reddish chocolate, most of the 
feathers having whitish shafts, and being obscurely barred with 
a deeper shade of brown ; the rump-feathers margined with 
yellowish white. Throat deep chocolate-brown, not reddish. 
Horseshoe-shaped striae on the breast light chocolate, those on 
the flanks dull blackish. Centre of belly white ; vent and tibiae 
the same, mottled with brown. Axillaries and underwings 
tinted with ochreous. The two central tail-feathers in adults 
