MYNAS 29 



In the neighbourhood of Calcutta their pairing 

 season seems to take place in the beginning of the 

 year, for it is then that one oftenest sees violent 

 contests among the males, such as that just 

 mentioned. The birds that take part in these frays, 

 either as spectators or as actors, are seemingly 

 young ones of the previous season, or widows and 

 widowers who have lost their mates ; for the 

 constancy with which they are to be met with in 

 pairs at all times of year seems to indicate that 

 their matrimonial alliances are permanent. During 

 the intervals between nesting seasons they assemble 

 every evening in countless numbers in order to 

 roost in certain favourite trees, coming into these 

 in pairs and small parties that continue to converge 

 from all quarters long after every available perch 

 must seemingly have been occupied. The trees 

 selected as bed-chambers are such as provide very 

 dense cover, and in Calcutta mangoes and Mimusops 

 elengi, trees that abound in urban gardens, are those 

 usually chosen. During the latter part of autumn 

 and the whole of the cold weather, many of the 

 gardens in the European part of the town are 

 nightly tenanted by countless multitudes of mynas, 

 who go out in the morning to the suburbs and the 

 country around, and return to town again towards 

 sundown. Were they content to go quietly to bed 

 there could be no objection to this, but, unfortun- 

 ately, they cannot settle down for the night without 



