-it
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in
216 Fon-ign Finches ui Capiivity.
other well-wooded districts, and generally so indeed in forest eoimtrv. Like all the
others It associates in small flocks,'and feeds on grass seeds and grain^ "
Gates says : " The White-throated Mnnia, like the spotted one, breeds pretty well
all over India, bnt the present species affects the most arid tracts, the latter the
well-wooded and watered ones. I know of no mouth in .,-liich in one place or another
Its eggs may not be fonnd. I have taken them myself in Janiiarv, Febrnary March
and April, and again in July, August and September. Mr. Theobald obtained them
also in May, October and No^-ember. They haye certainly two broods, probably
more ; the great niajorit_y of nests M'ill e^•ery^^•here I think, be found from January to
lAlarch, and from July to September.
Normally, in fact nine times out of teu, they place their nests in the low thick
thorn), bushes, at heights of from one foot to five feet from the ground • but I have
found them in the most out-of-the-way places-once in an old thatch, several times in
a haycock in my o^^-n ground, and once in amongst some dry bushes stuck up as
supports for, and almost covered with sweet peas.
Typically the uest is large and globular, loosely put together of fine and coarse
grass, the latter predominating on the outside, the former on the inside and with
more or less vegetable down as a lining. But they are sometimes only partially covered
sometimes quite open above, and all kinds of odds and ends are uot unfrequently
pressed into the service. I quote a few old notes of nests, made on the spot at the
time of fiudnig them. "Took a nest near Etawah on the 22 nd of January
It was composed entirely of the flower-stems oi clnreyan-ki-chunnc fAo-rlLis J.J
mixed here and there with a few tiny pieces of cotton, a small flock or two of wool'
one little piece of red cloth, and a few very small pieces of coarse cotton fabric It wa^
placed in a small bush ol fZizyphus nuvimulariaj, about six inches from
the ground. It ^^-as open, broadly saucer-like, some few of the elastic grass-stems of
the sides overhanging the cavit}- of the nest. It contained four pure white eggs.
" A nest containing eight eggs, taken on the 25th of Januar)-, i86r was a
complete sphere of soft grass, with only a hole in the side. It was pretty thickly
lined with cotton wool, and contained one or two small coloured rags It was in a
heens bush fCappans aphyllaj, with other nests, about six feet from the o-round
"January 28th.-In a ber tree, about ten feet from the ground, the nest loosely made
of the flowering stalks of delicate grasses, with a good deal of cotton, and one o-reenish
rag incorporated ; only one egg." " I have never taken more than eight egcrs in any
nest, and I have never myself had any reason to believe that more than one pair were
concerned in the construction or equipment of any nest I ever met witli • but it
will be seen that two pairs do sometimes combine to build and fill a single nest "
The Indian Silver Bill. 217
Mr. Gates then quotes Theobald's observations in support of this statement ;
after which he proceeds as follows :—" Mr. Brooks tells me he has often taken eggs at
Mirzapoor in December, and I have fonnd young birds often iu the coniniencement of
January, so that I see no reason to doubt the hatching of the December eggs.
" Sometimes they will eyen share a nest \vith another species. Colonel G. F. L.
Marshall remarks of this Mnnia ' I have taken eggs hard-set in the first ^veek in
February, in the Allahabad district. I have found them breeding in the eayes of a
verandah, the nest being formed of the usual materials—fine grass-stems iu seed, but
used only to line the hole in the roof. Out of one nest similarly situated, but inade
of grass and feathers mixed, I took seven eggs of this bird, and four o{ Passer Miens.
The nest in this case was probably built by the Sparrow.'
" Major C. T. Bingham says ' Breeds both at Allahabad and at Delhi from
February to September. Eggs white, from four to eight in number ; nest of grass,
sometimes domed, sometimes a mere pad.'
"Mr. R. M. Adam, uuder date November 15th, 1867, writes from Baraich :-—
' G n the 25th of October I found a half built nest oi Munia malabariea; two days
after, on visiting it again, I found it finished. November 3rd I found three eggs ; on
the gth one bird was hatched and four eggs in the nest; one was hard-set, which I
left, the other three I took and cleaned, and found iu them just the germs of life. Gii
the loth the egg I left was hatched. On the 12th I found the birds had deserted the
nest. It was built on a saro-tree fCuprcssus sempervireusj in the public gardens, about
fiye feet from the ground, and was composed of several kinds of green and dried
grasses, some of the heads of which were downy, and these with some soft feathers
formed the lining of the nest. The grasses were matted without much skill into a
shape like a Florence flask without neck, and supported by the branches and twigs of
the tree. There ^^•as only one opening, which measured two inches in diameter.
The size of the nest varies greatly, I have seen some fully two feet in
circumference.' "
Mr. F. R. Blewitt gives the following account of a uest of this species that he
fonnd in the Delhi district :—" As my man ascended a tree to fetch the eggs from an
Eagle's nest fAquila fulveseensj, I saw a pair of the small Miinia malabarica hopping
about from branch to branch, near to the nest, in great anxiety, chirping loudly all the
while. Taking the binoculars to watch the birds and their, as it appeared to me,
strange movements more closely, I saw one of them suddenly enter and disappear in a
small hole iu the tinder part of the large nest, the other immediately followed the
first, then both came forth and commenced hovering about the man, who had by this
time reached the nest. Not knowing what the hole could be there for, I directed the