The RICE BIRD (_Padda oryzivora_), one of the largest of the Asiatic Finches, constitutes, with one or two others, a group distinguished by their strong beaks, which are nearly straight, forming at their origin almost a right angle with the forehead, and furnished with a slight ridge in front of the nostrils. The wings are of moderate length, the two first quills being considerably longer than the rest; the individual quills that form the short and rounded tail are of unusual breadth; the plumage is grey or brown, with white patches upon the cheeks. In China these birds have always been called by the name that still distinguishes them, from the fact that they subsist in great measure upon "Padda," or rice that is still in the husk; and Chinese artists from the earliest times have thought them objects worthy of being constantly painted upon porcelain and rice-paper. They were not known to Europeans until about a century and a half ago, but at the present day are exported from Asia in great numbers. The plumage of the Rice Bird is grey, the wings of a somewhat deeper shade, and the sides lightly tinted with rose colour; the cheeks are of a pure white; the quills grey, with a dark border, and of a silvery whiteness on the under side; the tail is entirely black; the eyes brown, the eyelids red; the beak a bright rose colour, edged and tipped with pearly white; the feet are reddish. Many varieties of plumage are found among the members of this group, some few of them being entirely white.