The Tropical Agriculturist. The Agricultural Journal of Ceylon December 1936

The large majority of men are unable to distinguish their friends from their enemies or to appreciate the magnitude of the services which they receive from the former and of the losses which are inflicted on them by the latter. [...] While birds still abound in the remoter tank " areas intensive shooting assisted by the systematic clearing of adjacent jungle which might have provided nesting places has denuded the paddy fields in the more thickly inhabited parts of the country of all bird life and the paddy plantations are exposed to the uncontrolled attentions of the insect pests which a tropical climate produces in grea [...] In some of the more arid districts of the north and to a lesser extent in the south-east the WHITE-THROATED MUNIA (Uroloncha malabarica) also does damage occasionally to the ripening paddy crops but this species is confined to a very restricted area in the dry zone. [...] It visits the fields' in small flocks when the paddy is in the ear and consumes much of the grain. [...] The nest is placed in a large hole in the trunk of a tree standing in or beside the water or on the ground amongst herbage near the water.