BIRDS OF BANGKOK. 208 
nous ; quills black, the tertiaries and tips of the other feathers suffused 
with metallic blue and lilac; tail black with metallic blue gloss, the 
middle pair of feathers narrowly, the others more broadly, tipped 
sullied ferruginous white. 
Iris greyish white to white. Bill slatey blue. Legs plumbeous. 
Immature birds are darker grey on the body, and lack the con- 
spicuous patch formed by the white wing-coverts of adults. 
Habits, ete. A common cold weather visitor, occurring here in 
great numbers from September to February, after which the majority 
of the birds depart, though some linger on until April. They invariably 
go about in flocks numbering from three or four up to thirty or forty, 
and are a familiar and striking object, with their distinctive grey and 
white plumage, as they fly past rapidly in company, or settle on some 
tree to search for their food, This consists of insects and the nectar 
from flowers. 
Oates states that the few specimens of this bird which he pro- 
cured in Pegu were feeding on the ground, but in Bangkok, where 
they occur in large numbers, I have always found them strictly arbore- 
al, and while searching for their food they move along the branches 
and twigs with a peculiar creeping motion. The note of this bird is 
a harsh, but not loud, double chich-chich. 
I have been unable to get any satisfactory Siamese name for 
this bird, though it appears to bear several. 
Distribution. Also recorded from the Monthons of Ratburi and 
Petchaburi (Gairdner). 
*29 (539). Sturnia memoricola. The White-winged 
Myna. 
Description. Length about 203 mm. (8 in.) Upper plumage 
grey, darker on the back—the feathers of the head and neck having 
whitish shafts and those of the rump and upper tail-coverts being 
tinged with ferruginous ; quills blackish, all the feathers being tipped 
and edged with grey, the edging becoming broader on the secondaries 
and tertiaries; edge of wing white; middle pair of tail-feathers grey 
with black shafts, the others dark brown at the base and tipped with 
ferruginous. Chin, throat and upper breast greyish white to ferrugin- 
ous grey, the breast feathers with white shafts; remainder of lower 
plumage ferruginous white to deep ferruginous, 
