106 JOURNAL. BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



They are. of course, permanent residents, breeding as a rule from the 

 middle of May to about the end of July. 



In Kanara they appear to breed earlier, as Mr. Davidson has taken 

 eggs there as early as the middle of April. 



They are said to rear two broods during this period, but I am not 

 at all sure about this, the time seems much too short ; of course if 

 their eggs are taken, they will lay again. They seem to breed 

 almost anywhere, holes in trees, in walls, or in old masonry wells ; in 

 the roofs of houses, on the tops of pillars in verandahs, under the 

 thatch of hay stacks and occasionally in deserted kite or crow nests. 



Almost the first nest I found was of a compact cup- shape, and was 

 composed of fine twigs and grass, neatly lined with grass roots and 

 vegetable fibres ; it was built in a fork in a babool tree growing in a 

 hedge close to the Parsee Tower of Silence, Deesa, but I have never 

 met with a similar nest since. 



The nest is, as a rule, a most untidy shapeless affair, composed of 

 grass, straw, roots, bits of rag, feathers, &c. 



The eggs, four or five in number, generally five, are longish ovals 

 in shape, pinched in at one end. In length they average 1*19 inches 

 and in breadth 0"86, but they vary greatly, some eggs measuring as 

 much as 13 in length, while others again are little more than an inch. 



In colour they vary from a pale-blue to greenish-blue, and are 

 usually highly glossy. 



685.— THE BANK MYNA. 



Acridotheres ginginianus, Lath. 



The Bank Myna is very common throughout the province of Sind ; 

 it is equally common in Guzerat and parts of Rajpootana. Mr. 

 Davidson reports it from Western Khandeish and Nassick, and I have 

 seen it in the city of Bombay busily employed in excavating holes 

 in the embankment of the Wodehouse Bridge, near the railway 

 station at Colaba ; they did not, however, breed there, as the boys 

 persecuted them too much. They do not appear to occur in the 

 Deccan or anywhere south of Bombay. They are omitted from 

 Captain Butler's list of the Birds of the Deccan published in "Strap 

 Feathers," Vol. IX., and Mr. Vidal does not include them in his 

 " Birds of Ratnagiri." 



