Loxia orycivora, LINNÆUS; Le Padda, ou Oiseau de Riz, BUFFON;
Der Reiskernbeisser, BECHSTEIN.
This bird is about the size of a bullfinch, and five inches in length,
of which the tail measures two. The beak is thick, and of a fine rose
colour; the feet are paler; the eyelids naked, and edged with rose
colour; the head, throat, and streak which surrounds the cheeks, are
black; the cheeks are white; the rump, tail, and greater pen-feathers
are black, but all the rest of the upper part of the body, the
wing-coverts, hinder pen-feathers, and breast, are of a dark grey; the
belly purple grey; the lower tail-coverts white. "The whole plumage,"
says Buffon, "is so well arranged, that no one feather passes another,
and they all appear downy, or rather covered with that kind of bloom
which you see on plums; this gives them a very beautiful tint."
In the female the colours are rather lighter on the back and belly: the
young are not only paler, but also irregularly spotted with dark brown
on the cheeks and lower part of the belly.
OBSERVATIONS.--There are few vessels coming from Java and the Cape of
Good Hope that do not bring numbers of these birds, which have as bad
a character in those countries, and particularly in China, their
native place, as the sparrows have amongst us, on account of the
ravages they make in the rice fields. They have nothing attractive
but their beauty, for their song is short and monotonous. They cost
four or five pounds sterling a pair in Germany.