AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

Munia pallida

MUNIA PALLIDA.
THE PALLID MUNIA.
PLATE VII. (FIG. 4).
Munia pallida, Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, pp. 486, 495.
Amadina pallida, Gray, Hand-List Birds, ii. p. 54 (1870).
Amadina pallida, Blasius, Journ, fur Ornith. 1883, p. 125.
English. The Pallid or Celebean White-headed Munia.
Habitat. Celebes. Lombok and Flores (Wallace).
“Rufo-cinerea, subtus pallide rufa ; capite colloque albis, pectore albescente, crisso caudaque rufo-castaneis, uropygio et caudae tectricibus superioribus intense sericeo-castaneis ” (Wallace).
Adult. “Above rufous ash ; beneath pale rufous ; head and neck white ; breast tinged with rosy ash ; tail and under tail-coverts dark rufous ; rump and upper tail-coverts glossy chestnut brown ; bill and feet blue-lead ; iris dark : length 4.1/8 inches, wing 2.1/5 inches ” (Wallace).
Female. Similar.
Observ. Mr. Wallace states that this bird is “very near Munia maja (L.), but differs in the much paler colouring of both the upper and under surface.”
THE Pallid Munia is an insular form which so closely resembles the White¬headed Munia, that I doubt whether it can really be separated, although I give it as distinct, on the authority of Air. A. R. Wallace who discovered it in Celebes.
The three pale-headed birds here described verge one into the other in the same manner as the three last Black-headed Manias ; therefore it is somewhat difficult to say which is the older form, although 1 am inclined to regard the Javan or Black-throated bird as the type. This bird appears to be extremely rare in collections, and according to Mr. Wallace is very local, and almost exclusively confined to Lombok and Flores. I am unable at present to give any details of its. habits or nidification. It is now figured for the first time, from the specimen procured by Mr. A. R. Wallace, which is in the British Museum.

BookTitle: 
A Monograph Ploceidae And Fringillidae
Reference: 
Bartlett, Edward. A Monograph of the Weaver-birds, Ploceidae, and Arboreal and Terrestrial Finches, Fringillidae. 1888.
Title in Book: 
Munia pallida
Book Author: 
Bartlett, Edward
Year: 
1888
Page No: 
51
Common name: 
Pallid Munia
M_ID: 
30167
M_CN: 
Pale-headed Munia
M_SN: 
Lonchura pallida
id: 
9932

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