364 ETJLABETID^). 



tame ones brought up from the nest, but have never succeeded 

 in getting a perfect egg owing to my having found all the nests in 

 very hard places to get at. 



" I cut down a tree containing a nest and broke all the eggs, 

 which must have been very pretty blue ground, very regularly 

 marked with purplish-brown spots. The nest was composed of 

 sticks, twigs, feathers, and some snake-skin. I have found them 

 in March, April, September, and October. I hope this year to 

 get a number of eggs, as Culputty is a very good place for 

 them." 



Mr. C. J. W. Taylor notes from Manzeerabad in Mysore : 

 " Common up in the wooded portions of the district. Breeding in 

 April and May." 



Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, speaking of this Grackle in Travan- 

 core, says : " This bird lays one or two light blue eggs beautifully 

 blotched with purple in the holes of trees. It does not like heavy 

 jungle, but after a clearing has been felled and burnt it is sure to 

 appear. During the fine weather it is very abundant on the hills, 

 descending to the low country at the foot when the rains have 

 fairly set in. The nest scarcely deserves the name, being only 

 a few dead leaves or some powdered wood at the bottom of the 

 hole, and there about the end of March the egg or eggs are laid. 

 The young birds, which can be taught to speak and become very 

 tame, are often taken by the natives, as they can sell them in the 

 low country. I have obtained on the following dates eggs and 

 young birds : 



' March 29th. One egg slightly set. 

 * April 20th. Two young birds. 

 ' April 22nd. 



' April 25th. Two eggs slightly set. 

 ' May 2nd. One young bird. 



l l also had three eggs, slightly set, brought me on May 21. 

 They are rather smaller and a deeper blue than the ones obtained 

 before, being 1-25 x 1, 1-19 x -95, 1-21 X '97 inch. They were all 

 out of the same nest, so that the bird sometimes lays three eggs, 

 though the usual number is two." 



Colonel Legge writes in the 'Birds of Ceylon ': " The Black 

 Myna was breeding in the Pasdun Korale on the occasion of a 

 visit I made to that part in August, but I did not procure its 

 eggs." 



Other eggs subsequently sent me by Mr. Bourdillon from 

 Mynall, in Southern Travancore, taken on the 9th and 13th April, 

 1875, are precisely similar to those already described. The eggs 

 that I have measured have only varied from 1-2 to 1-37 in length, 

 and from 0-86 to O9 in width. 



