MYNAS 25 



knows what curio may not be brought in. Sticks, 

 straws, feathers, rags, small bones, and pieces of paper 

 are all deemed valuable, and a very special worth 

 would seem to attach to the cast skins of snakes, for, 

 in any case where these are attainable, they are 

 almost sure to be worked into the growing heap of 

 rubbish. The pity is that in their effort to bring in 

 exceptionally bulky materials they are apt to drop 

 them about, and, although snake-skins and feathers 

 may be interesting and even decorative additions to 

 the furniture of a room, great pieces of paper or rag, 

 of unknown origin and very doubtful purity, can 

 hardly be regarded as desirable additions to one's 

 surroundings. 



Mynas always make themselves entirely at home 

 in a house, taking it completely for granted that 

 they are quite at liberty to drop in and stay whenever 

 and for as long as they like. Even when the open 

 spaces above the railings of a verandah are netted or 

 wired up, they refuse to recognise it as a notice of 

 warning against trespass, but squeeze their way in 

 between the rails whenever the whim seizes them to 

 do so. They persist in asserting a right-of-way, and 

 never show any sense of guilt or confusion when 

 detected, but merely quietly withdraw without any 

 unseemly haste or flurry. In this they are curiously 

 unlike the crows, who are just as ready to pay 

 uninvited visits, but who are so well aware that they 

 ought not to do so, that the terrors of detection at 



