96 Mr. E. BlytVs List of Birds obtained 



tube is pointed at them, while others sit observantly on the neigh- 

 bouring house-tops, &c., all launching on the wing on the next dis- 

 charge with clamorous outcry, and then, by degrees, returning to 

 their place of observation. Thus, too, they persecute the gunner 

 when in quest of other birds, spreading the alarm in all directions : 

 and I remember, once, when loading beside a large tank, a pair of 

 the fine Caspian tern came and dashed by two or three times within 

 range, but just as I was ready for them a wild crow made his appear- 

 ance and attacked one of them, being soon joined by others of his 

 fraternity, who speedily drove away the pair of terns without afford- 

 ing me the wished-for chance of a shot. Again, I have seen a crow of 

 this species pounce on a pied harrier (^Circus melanoleucos) which was 

 standing quietly on the bank of a rivulet, and continue to attack 

 and follow it till both were out of sight. On one occasion I re- 

 marked a number of crows and mynabs collected around some horse- 

 droppings on a road, when one of the crows pertinaciously prevented 

 a particular individual mynab from partaking with the rest of the 

 party ; again and again did the poor mynab make the attempt, step- 

 ping round and approaching from different directions, but all to no 

 purpose, the crow meanwhile paying no attention to the other 

 mynabs of the same species {Pastor tristis) which were engaged in 

 picking out the grains. But the most remarkable fact I have ob- 

 served of this crow was during my short sojourn at Madras, Vv^here a 

 party of about twenty were in the daily habit of attending the break- 

 fast of the friend at whose house I was staying, without, however, 

 being allowed to enter the room : among these were two blind, or 

 rather purblind, crows, which could just see their way about, without 

 apparently being able to pick up small articles of food, and these were 

 regularly fed by the rest, first one and then another of which they 

 followed with imploring demeanour and quivering wings, like a nest- 

 ling, and received the morsels with the same gobbling note of gra- 

 tulation. They were evidently old birds, and perhaps aged ; and it 

 recalled to mind an anecdote related by Levaillant of two barbets 

 (Bucco) which that observer found in a compartment of one of the 

 great compound nests of a species of weaver-bird, and which from 

 their helpless state, but good condition, must evidently have been 

 fed by others for some time. 



63. Crypsirina vagahunda ; genus Dendrocitta, Gould, Phremthrix, 

 Horsfield. Very common, and the only species of its group found 

 in this neighbourhood. I have never seen it alight on the ground. 



64. Gracula religiosa ; Eulabes Javanus (?), Cuvier. The common 

 hill mynab of the shops, but brought from some distance. It does 

 not appear to inhabit the low country. 



65. G. Indicus (?) ; Eulabes Indicus (?), Cuvier. Smaller than the 

 preceding species, with the bill considerably more slender, the velvety 

 space on the sinciput much reduced in size, and bounded above as 

 well as below by the naked skin. I have obtained a cage-specimen, 

 and seen no other example. 



QQ. Pastor tristis. An abundant and very familiar species, being 

 another of the street-birds of Calcutta, though keeping chiefly to 



