THE STARLINGS OR MYNAHS. 53 



sometimes come down on the ground and run about 

 after insects like other Mynahs. But it cannot pretend to 

 compare with them either in attractiveness or utility. 



The Hill Mynah (Eulahes intermedia) is typical of a 

 group of Mynahs sometimes — as in the Fauna of British 

 India volumes — ranked as a distinct family, which keep to 

 the trees altogether and feed entirely on fruit. They do 

 not affect human habitations at all, build in holes in trees, 

 laying spotted eggs, and are not able to walk like the 

 ordinary Mynahs, progressing on the ground only by hops. 

 The well-known species mentioned above is a very heavy, 

 thick-set bird, with short wings and tail, deep short bill 

 and short strong legs and feet. The head has a band of 

 bare skin on each side, irregular in outline and ending in 

 loose flaps at the back. The length of the bird is about a 

 foot ; its plumage is black, richly glossed with purple and 

 green, and with a wliite band on the pinion-quills. The 

 bill is rich orange-red, and the feet and bare skin of the 

 head bright yellow ; the eyes are dark. 



Young birds have a dead-black plumage, and the bare 

 skin on the head lies close throughout, and does not end 

 in the loose flaps behind. 



There is a good deal of difference in adult Hill Mynahs, 

 some having much larger bills and better-developed head- 

 lappets than others. 



This bird, so widely celebrated as a talker, and known 

 to the natives as Pahari Mynah, is found on the lower 

 slopes of the Himalayas, throughout Burma and the 

 Malay Peninsula, in the south-eastern part of the Central 

 Provinces, and the Andamans and Nicobars. I have only 



