A BIRD OF CHARACTER 95 



floor of the cavity with a collection of rubbish, com- 

 posed chiefly of rags, grass, twigs, and bits of paper. 

 There was no attempt at arranging this rubbish, it was 

 bundled pell-mell into the hole and four pretty blue 

 eggs were laid on top of it. 



One might suppose that the more intelligent the bird 

 the greater the degree of architectural skill it would dis- 

 play. This, however, is not the case. Were it so, crows, 

 mynas, and parrots would build palatial nests. 



Mynas do not always nestle in holes in buildings ; 

 they are content with any kind of a cavity, whether it be 

 in a building, a tree, or a sandbank. In default of a hole 

 they are content with a ledge, provided it be covered 

 with a roof. A few years ago a pair of mynas reared 

 up a brood on a ledge in the much-frequented verandah 

 of the Deputy Commissioner's Court at Fyzabad. 



To return to the nest in my porch. The eggs in due 

 course gave rise to four nestlings of the ordinary ugly, 

 triangular-mouthed, alderman-stomached variety. When 

 they were nearly ready to leave the nest I took away 

 two of them by way of rent for the use of my bungalow. 

 This action was in complete accord with oriental custom. 

 In India the landlord has, from time immemorial, taken 

 from his tenants a portion of their produce as rent or 

 land revenue. The Congress will doubtless declare that 

 in levying 50 per cent, of the family brood I assessed 

 the family too highly ; but I defy even a Bengali orator 

 to take 33 per cent, of four young mynas. I might, it is 

 true, have assessed the rent at 25 per cent, but the life 

 of a solitary myna cannot be a very happy one, so I took 

 two, a cock and a hen. 



