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T H E SPICE FINCH.
Alutiia punctulata, LINN.
J^NHABITS the greater part of India and Ce3ilon, '\\'liere it is extremely common.
This and its races are among the most abnndantlj' imported species.
Above, M. punctulata is reddish cliocolate, with narrow whitish shaft-lines ; the
lower back crossed by wavy dark brown bars ; croup and tipper tail-coverts strawcoloured
with a golden Instre ; tail feathers dark brown, yellowish externally; flight
feathers dark brown, reddish externallj^ ; head dark chestnut red, with faintly-marked
shaft-lines, sides of neck a little paler ; remainder of undersurface white, the feathers
barred and edged towards the sides of the body with chestnut and at the sides with
blackish ; thighs greyish-brown with dark bars ; under tail-coverts whitish buff; under
wing-coverts buff slightly barred ; the edge of the wing mottled with white ; flights
below dusk}', with the outer webs somewhat yellowish. Length 45 inches. Beak
bluish-black, the lower mandible a little paler ; legs leaden-grey ; iris brown.
Of this species I received ten examples in 1892, brought home from Bomba}' by
the Captain of a trading-ship, I alreacty had a pair in my Bird-room, I therefore
turned in four others, and let the remaining six in my cold aA'iary. I find that
they are absolutely indifferent to temperature, and the whole dozen are alive and well
as I write.*
As there has been much confusion between the typical species and its races,t I
give the following distinctive characters on Dr. Sharpe's authoritj' :—
Muiiia subundulata, GODWIN-AUSTIN.
Differs from M. pimctulata "in the more olive-yellow shade of the rump, upper
tail-coverts and tail, and the generally more ashy black of the flank-barring, which,
moreover, is not so strongl}' pronounced as in M. punctulata. On the rump the
feathers have not the second subterminal dusky bar which is seen in the latter species."
*Oiie or two of these iWr, Abrahams identified witli the Bar-breasted iineli.
tTliis confusion lias arisen from the fact that such wcll-kno-\vn scientists as Ulytli, Jerdon and Oates, have
confounded the races with the type " M. pnnctulata."—A.G.R,
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