220 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Behavior. — La Touche (1926) says of the habits of the crested 

 mynah in China : 



At night it roosts in company with other Starlings and with Jackdaws and 

 other Corvidae on tall banihoos and trees to the accompaniment of * * * the 

 usual shrieks and cries peculiar to the Starlings. Companionable as it is with 

 the ploughman and workers in the fields, it is wary and shy with the suspected 

 stranger. But, taken at the nest and brought up by hand, the Crested Mynah 

 makes a most delightful pet, distinguishing its owner and liecoming exceedingly 

 tame and familiar. I have bad many of these birds, and, but for their accipitrine 

 failing which they share with the Crow family, they make quite the most enjoy- 

 able bird-companion one can have. They are good talkers, equal to most Par- 

 rots, and are docile and easily taught. With the Chinese this Mynah is a valued 

 cage-bird, and great numbers are reared by hand every spring in South China. 



One of the worst things that can be said against the mynah is that 

 it competes with some of our most useful species in its nesting habits 

 and in its feeding habits; berry -bearing trees and shrubs are soon 

 stripped of their fruit, so that our native birds have to look elsewhere 

 for their food supply ; it not only drives away our hole-nesting birds 

 from their accustomed hollows in the trees or from bird boxes, but it 

 destroys their eggs or young in order to preempt the site. As a result, 

 many of native woodpeckers, bluebirds, and wrens have disappeared 

 from sections where they were once common. The mynahs have also 

 been reported as destroying the eggs and young in open nests, such 

 as those of robins; these were probably taken for food. 



Scheffer and Cottam (1935) write: 



In conflict with the flicker, the myna shows tact and persistence. If a new 

 home of the former is under construction in a tree stub, the mynas will wait 

 patiently for its completion, coming around occasionally to note progress. "S^Tben 

 it is ready for use, several paii'S of the intruders may contest for its possession, 

 giving the impression that they are "ganging up" on the unfortunate home 

 builder. The result is always the same — eviction of the woodpecker tenants. 

 When the myna wishes to build its home where a native bird has already 

 made progress in rearing a family, it tosses out both eggs and young with 

 little ceremony. * * * 



For a time after dispersal from the nests, late in summer and early in fall, 

 crested mynas are associated in small groups, probably family parties re- 

 maining about the old nesting sites or in flight to and from feeding grounds. 

 This habit was particularly noticeable at the time of the first visit of Scheffer 

 to the Vancouver district, in August. It is in considerable contrast to the 

 flocking habits of Brewer's blackbirds, which assemble in great numbers at 

 this season. * * * 



Though sometimes observed feeding with other birds, particularly Brewer's 

 blackbirds, in the gardens and grainfields of the Fraser River delta, the myna 

 has .shown no disposition to drift with them in migration, and at roosting time, 

 it clannishly associates with its kind. When rougher weather comes on, these 

 birds resort more and more to close-foliaged trees for shelter or roosting at night, 

 and for accommodations for larger groups than family parties. 



The large myna roost in the heart of Vancoiiver city, near the waterfront, 

 in the glare of street lights and the confused noise of trafiic, has been the subject 

 of much comment and many reports for several years. This section is but 



