To the Editor of the Nowmn-Civa Dairy News to correspondence which took. place Sin,-—My attention has been drawn
dosing my absence from, Shanghai finder' the, heading of, "Sparrows om. Java" with -& request that frould give my views on the subs ect ening your heading should: have been, "Java, Sparrows" and not Sparcows from Java," since the former is one of the accepted names or" these well-known birds, 'They have also in the. past. been called Gock"Padda" "Rice Bird" and many. other names suggestive of Thetr habit of feeding in the paddy. feds. They ave. best' known, Shanghai residents as cage. birds and purposely did not deal With... riem in "Shanghai Bie 'Mr. Sowerby' extracts from r|various books with reference to the fdfferent parts of the world where these birds have been observed are Jquite correct, and I think his ques tion as to whether the birds origin nated in Java is best answered the statement made in the Britis Museum Catalogue, (Vol. XIHI that the Aabitat is "Java, Sumate fand Malacca, Introduced into ma fother countries." How the bir feame to. be introduced into such widely different areas as Japa Singapore, different parts of Chinay Borneo, Mauritius & Zanzibar must always' be something of a mystery but' birds escaped from. captivity fare often capable of establishing themselves and flourishing in differs fent parts of the world," 'These birds! do not appear to be "mgr ints" in the true sense of the word, but' to: have acquired the' habit.
dering over large areas in come fraratively smal) bands, 'As regards. thelt' occurrence it (china, La Touche mentions them Jing' recorded from South East, China," Swatow,—Hongkong Shanghai. In my "Bird published last year, I recorded see" Ing them "in "Shanghai in May, while I have distinct memory of Seeing a band of them here some years. ago in the autumn, Finally, British Museum records them Jas being taken in Amoy in Septem= Ler and October. Taking all this evidence together, 1 think we may safely assume that the birds may fe seen occasionally in the wild state in Shangha, The most interesting part of the problem is their nesting and here that I find myself at a come lcte loss. Mr. Sowerby says. ho Taw the birds nesting in Java like the Common Sparrow in the roofs lof houses; yet we must remember that the so-called "Java Sparrow? really belongs to the family Weavers" (Ploceidac) whi "build large balleshaped nests. of, grass", Unfortunately, 1 cannot find any records of these birds nests jing in China.
"This brings me to the very inters esting remarks of your correspon dent R.C.T. who, refers to the Java Sparrow as being also Known, "The Finchbilled Weaver Bird." I hvould very much Tike to discuss his fcbservations with him, and T-cane pot help thinking he has confused {ihe Java Sparrow with the Sharpe tailed Munia. Both of these birds fare Mucnias and both belong to the Weaver family but they are very, different in. general appearances The former is a really pretty bird pale blue grey in colour with black Cap, white. face and: red bill: the fatter isa dull chocolate-brown (Contiided, on Pave 100.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.