Mr. A. Hume on Indian Oi-nithulogy . 15 



green, pretty thickly blotched and spotted with olive-brownj 

 some of the spots and blotches being much fainter and having 

 an almost purplish tinge. Most of the blotches were gathered 

 into a very broad irregular ill-defined zone round the large end. 

 These were normal eggs ; and none of the thirteen that I have 

 procured during the past fortnight differed much from one or 

 other of them. 



At the extremity of one of the branches of these same mango- 

 trees a small truss of hay, as it seemed, at once caught every 

 eye. This was one of the huge nests of the Pied Pastor {Stunio- 

 pastor contra), and proved to be some 2 feet in length and 18 

 inches in diameter, composed chiefly of dry grass, but with a 

 few twigs, many feathers, and a strip or two of rag intermingled 

 in the mass. The materials were loosely put together ; and the 

 nest was placed high up in a fork, near the extremity of a branch. 

 In the centre was a well-like cavity some 9 inches deep by 3"5 

 in diameter, at the bottom of which, amongst many feathers, 

 lay four fresh eggs, four or five being the full number laid by 

 this bird. The eggs are glossy and of a uniform colour, speci- 

 mens from different nests varying a good deal in tint and shade. 

 Some are pale blue, some a light greenish-blue ; all are without 

 speck, spot, or shading ; they are rather pear-shaped as a rule, 

 but nearly perfect ovals occur. In size they vary much, as the 

 following measurements from the extremes out of nearly a hun- 

 dred specimens show. Length from 1 inch to 1"187, breadth 

 from '7o to '875, the average size being 1*093 by '812. All 

 the four species of Pastors that breed hereabouts lay eggs of the 

 same character ; yet those of each are clearly separable from those 

 of the others, and each has its different style of nest-architec- 

 ture. A fortnight ago, driving out one morning we found that 

 a colony of the Bank-Mynah {Acridotheres ginginianus) had 

 taken possession of some fresh excavations on the banks of a 

 small stream. The excavation was about ten feet deep ; and in 

 its face, in a band of softer and more sandy earth than the rest, 

 about one foot below the surface of the ground, these Myuahs 

 had bored innumerable holes. They had taken no notice of the 

 workmen — who had been continuously employed within a ic^f 

 yards of them, and informed us that the Mynahs had first made 



