100 The Birds of British Guiana. 



" oil Indian birds deal with liini. They discourse at length upon his 

 " Icharai'ter and habits, and then proceed to dismiss the bank myna. with 

 " tlic remark that iis liabits are those of his cousin. 



" The bank myna is a Jnyna every inch of him. He is a chip 

 " of the old block ; there is nt mistaking him for anything but what he 

 " is. So like iiis cousin is he that when 1 first set eyes upon liim I 

 " took him for a common myna freak. And I still believe I was not 

 " greatly mistaken. 1 submit that the species larose as a inutation from 

 " .1 iristis. 



" Once upon a time a pair of common mynas must have had 

 " cause to shake their heads gravely over one or more of their young- 

 " stars who ditf'ered much from the rest of the brood. .^.s these young- 

 ''ster. grew u]), the differences became even more marked; they showed 

 '■ themseh'es slaty gi'ey where they should have been rich lirown, 

 " iind pinkish buff v\here white feathers ought to have appeared, and 

 " the clima.v; mu>t have been reached when the youngsters developed 

 " crimson patches of skin at the side of tl^e head, instead of yellow* 

 " ones. Probably the other m\na^ of the locality openly e.vpressctl 

 " iiheir disapproval of tlicse caricatures of the species, for mynas do not 

 " kee]> their feelings to themselves. As likely as not they put these 

 ' new-fangled creatures into Coventry, for birds are as conservative as 

 " (iIlI maids. 



" Thus these myna freaks were compelled to live apart, but, 

 " being strong and healthy, they throve and either paired inter •.(', or 

 "managed to secure mates among their normally dres.sed fellows. In 

 " .either case, the off-spring bore the stamp of their abnormal parents. 



" It is a «.UrLous fact, and one which throws much lighl on the 

 " process of evolution that abnormalities have a \'ery .strong tendency to 

 " i)er|>etuate themsel\-es. Thus ua^ lirought intcj bein,g* a new species, 

 " and as there were in those times no ornithologists to shoot these' 

 " freaks, and as the\- passetl with credit the test ])rescril)ed by nature, 

 " the species has secured a firm footing in India. This hy|ioihesis ac- 

 " counts for the comparatively restricted distribution of the bank myna. 

 ■' It does not occur south of the Narbada and Mahanadi i<i\-ers, but 

 "is found all over the plains of Northern India, and .ascends some 

 " way up the Himalayas. It is particularly abundant in the eastern 

 " jiortion of the I nited l'ro\-in<es. In the course of a stroll lhrt>ugh 

 '■ the hekls of Allahabad, l.ucknov\-, or Fryzabad, one meets with thou- 

 " sands of bank mynas. There seems to be evidence that this species 

 " is e.xtending its range both eastwards and westwards : and one of these 

 " tLays a southerly advance may he made,, so that e\-entuall\' the bank 

 " myna may form an attractive addition to the birds of Madras. 



" This species goes about in flocks of varying numbers, after 

 " the fasjuon of the common myna. It comes into towns and villages, 

 " but is much less oi a garden bird than its familiar cousin. It is in/ 

 " the fields, especially in the vicinity of rivers, that these birds oc<?ur 



