CRESTED MTNAH 217 



Scheffer and Cottam (1935) write: 



The nesting time of the crested myna in the Vancouver district covers about 

 10 to 12 weeks in May, June, and July. * * * The crested myna is not so 

 confiding and persistent as the English sparrow {Passer domcsticus) , but where 

 persecuted or unduly disturbed, it will usually abandon its hnmemaking to try 

 elsewhere. * * * 



For nesting sites, the crested myna apparently requires a nearly enclosed 

 space. It does not incline to build, like the robin or the English sparrow, on 

 supports partly in the open or with semishelter. In fields and woods, the nests 

 are usually made in the tree holes that sometimes result from decay in the dead 

 stubs, but more frequently from excavations made by flickers {C'olaptcs cafcr) 

 or other woodpeckers. As many as half a dozen or more such holes occupied 

 by mynas may sometimes be seen in a single tree trunk on logged-off and burned- 

 over land that has a covering of low, second-growth trees and shrubs. About 

 the city the nests are commonly made in enclosed shelters formed by the cornices, 

 eaves, chimneys, and drain spouts of buildings. Sometimes they are in the 

 boxing of guy wires on line poles. Mynas will also occupy tree boxes placed 

 for them or for other birds. 



The nests themselves are mere collections of trashy materials assem))led from 

 any available source not too remote for economy in flight, such as bits of grass 

 and weeds, foil, cellophane, and other candy and gum wrappings, feathers, 

 snake skins, rubber bands, and fine rootlets. * * * 



The following summary was made of notes kept by Scheffer and Gumming 

 on the nesting of a pair of crested mynas in a tree box placed in a garden at 

 Vancouver : The pair first appeared at the nesting site on April 14 and spent 14 

 days in building the nest, the first egg being laid April 28. Five days were 

 required to complete the clutch, one egg each day. * * * 



It is difficult to learn by direct observation just v,'hen the season of brood 

 rearing naturally closes ; for, because of the bird's association with human 

 habitations, many nests are inadvertently broken up from time to time, and 

 the nesting pairs are forced to seek new sites and try again. Sometimes, too, 

 the bii'ds or their nests are disturbed with hostile intent by city dwellers who 

 do not care to have the foreign intruders about the premises. Tlie crested myna 

 is not so confiding and persistent as the English sparrow {Passer domcsticus) , 

 but where persecuted or unduly disturbed, it will usually abandon its home- 

 making and try elsewhere. 



Vaughan and Jones (1913) , writing of southeastern China, say : "The 

 Mynah breeds plentifully at Hong Kong and elsewhere on the Kwang 

 Tung coast, where, as a rule, some hole in a building, the top of a 

 waste-water pipe, or still more frequently the deserted hole of one of 

 the Kingfishers, is made use of. In the latter, a sort of step is always 

 scratched at the lower portion of the orifice, which is also consider- 

 ably enlarged. Up the West River and inland the favourite site is 

 an old Magpie's nest, though ruinous old pagodas and holes in trees 

 are also made use of, and the deserted nest of Graculipica nigricollis is 

 sometimes resorted to. In suitable situations breeding-colonies are 

 often found." 



Eggs. — The usual set for the crested mynah consists of four or five 

 eggs, sometimes six and rarely seven. La Touche ( 1926) says the eggs 

 are "greenish blue, the surface smooth and glossy." Wilson C. Hanna 



843290—50 15 



