THE BANK MYNA 227 



of Northern India, and ascends some way up the 

 Himalayas. It is particularly abundant in the eastern 

 portion of the United Provinces. In the course of 

 a stroll through the fields at Allahabad, Lucknow, 

 or Fyzabad, one meets with thousands of bank mynas. 

 There seems to be evidence that this species is ex- 

 tending its range both eastwards and westwards ; 

 and one of these days a southerly advance may be 

 made, so that eventually the bank myna may form 

 an attractive addition to the birds of Madras. 



This species goes about in flocks of varying numbers, 

 after the fashion of the common myna. It comes into 

 towns and villages, but is much less of a garden bird 

 than its familiar cousin. It is in the fields, especially 

 in the vicinity of rivers, that these birds occur most 

 abundantly. They consort with all the other species 

 of myna, for, whatever may have been thought of 

 them when first evolved, they are now in society. 

 King-crows (Dicrurus ater) dance attendance upon 

 them as they do on the common mynas, for the sake 

 of the insects put up by them as they strut through 

 the grass. The king-crow, owing to the length of 

 its tail and the shortness of its legs, is no pedestrian, 

 and so is not able to beat for itself. 



The books tell us that bank mynas feed on insects, 

 grain, and fruit. I am inclined to think that their 

 diet is confined almost exclusively to the first of these 

 articles. I speak not as one having authority, for, 

 in order to do this, it is necessary to shoot dozens of 

 the birds and carefully examine the contents of their 

 stomachs. This kind of thing I leave to the economic 



