Mr. A. Hume on Indian OrnitJiology. 17 



or to afford pleasant sitting-places for the birds not engaged in 

 incubation. While we were robbing the nests, the whole colony 

 kept screaming and flying in and out of these holes in the va- 

 rious pillar-tops in a very remarkable manner; and it may be 

 that, after the fashion of Lapwings, they thought to lead us 

 away from their eggs and induce a belief that their real homes 

 w'ere iu the pillar-tops. 



After taking the Pied Pastors' eggs, we proceeded to look up 

 the nests of two more nearly allied species, which my hench- 

 man had previously discovered. The first was one of that beau- 

 tiful little bird the Pagoda-Mynah {Temenuchus pacjodarmn). 

 In appearance this species pleases me more than any other 

 member of the Sturnidce, not excluding the gaudy Afi'ican 

 Lamprotornithes or the delicate Pastor roseiis; there is some- 

 thing so essentially " gentlemanly " in the look of the little bird, 

 he is always so exquisitely glossy, neat, and clean, and he always 

 looks so perfectly independent and so thoroughly good-hu- 

 moured. In a word, this Mynah is a special favourite of mine, 

 and I really felt very loath to rifle the little homestead. But it 

 is not very commonly found ; so I ruthlessly sent a man up to the 

 nest. This was neither more nor less than a nearly bare hole, 

 worked by the birds into a decaying portion of the trunk of a 

 sirris-tree ; and three beautiful very pale blue eggs were soon 

 brought to me thence, amidst the noisy expostulations of the 

 parents, who kept fluttering round the plunderer in his descent, 

 apparently half inclined to do battle for their treasures. The 

 eggs are smaller than those of either of the two species pre- 

 viously noticed, and invariably of a much purer and paler blue, 

 and of a more oval shape. In length they vary from '937 in. 

 to 1*031, and in breadth from "687 to '75. Like those of 

 the other species they have a beautiful satiny gloss, and a close 

 firm grain. As far as I have seen, the Pagoda-Mynah here 

 always breeds in holes of trees; but the Common Mynah [Acri- 

 dotheres tristis), three of whose nests we next proceeded to visit, 

 breeds indifferently in ready-made holes of trees and of walls, 

 making in them a loose nest, chiefly composed of feathers and 

 straw, and laying from four to five blue eggs, larger and, as a 

 rule, darker-coloured than those of any of the other three species. 



N. S. VOL. V. c ^ 



