382 STUBNIDJE. 



floored with a loose nest of grass, a few feathers, and, in many 

 instances, scraps of snake-skins. 



" Are birds superstitious, I wonder ? Do they believe in charms ? 

 If not, what induces so many birds that build in holes in banks to 

 select out of the infinite variety of things, organic or inorganic, 

 pieces of snake -skin for their nests? They are at best harsh, un- 

 manageable things, neither so warm as feathers, which are ten times 

 more numerous, nor so soft as cotton or old rags, which lie about 

 broadcast, nor so cleanly as dry twigs and grass. Can it be that 

 snakes have any repugnance to their ' worn out weeds,' that they 

 dislike these mementos of their fall *, and that birds which breed in 

 holes into which snakes are likely to come by instinct select these 

 exuviae as scare-snakes ? 



" In some of the nests we found three or four callow young ones, 

 but in the majority of the terminal chambers were four, more or 

 less, incubated eggs. 



" I noticed that the tops of all the mud-pillars (which had been 

 left, standing to measure the work by) had been drilled through and 

 through by the Mynas, obviously not for nesting-purposes, as not 

 one of them contained the vestige of a nest, but either for amuse- 

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

 in incubation. Whilst we were robbing the nests, the whole colony 

 kepb screaming and flying in and out of these holes in the various 

 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 were in the pillar 

 tops." 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall remarks : " This species breeds in the 

 Bolundshahr District in June and July. It makes its nest in a 

 hole in a bank, but more often in the side of a kucha or earthen 

 well. A number of birds generally breed in company. The nest 

 is formed by lining the cavity with a little grass and roots and a 

 few feathers. On the 8th July I found a colony breeding in a well 

 near Khoorjah, and took a dozen fresh eggs." 



Writing from Lucknow, Mr. Gr. Reid says : " During the breed- 

 ing season it associates in large flocks along the banks of the Goomti, 

 where it nidificates in colonies in holes in the banks of the river. 

 From some of these holes I took a few fresh eggs on the 15th May, 

 and again on the 30th June on revisiting the spot. In the district 

 it breeds in old irrigation-wells and occasionally in ravines with good 

 steep banks." 



Major C. T. Bingham, writing from Allahabad, says : " Breeds 

 in June, July, and August in holes in sandy banks of rivers and 

 nullahs. Eggs, five in number, laid on a lining of straw and 

 feathers." 



* "When the snake," says an Arabic commentator, "tempted Adam, it was 

 a winged animal. To punish its misdeeds the Almighty deprived it of wings, 

 and condemned it thereafter to creep for ever on its belly, adding, as a perpetual 

 reminder to it of its trespass, a command for it to cast its skin yearly." 



