MYNAS 31 



almost equal to that of roosting-time, issues from 

 the trees. 



In the neighbourhood of Calcutta mynas nest 

 all through the hot weather and the early part 

 of the rainy season, and as, in the plains at least, 

 they prefer to use buildings rather than trees as sites 

 for their nests, it is not always easy to keep them 

 from invading the interior of houses in their quest 

 for eligible places. There are certainly some grounds 

 for refusing to allow them to settle in inhabited 

 rooms, for, though they do not, like sparrows, 

 resent the entrance of any one into their domain 

 with noisy vociferation, they are very apt to scatter 

 unpleasing rubbish over the floors, and one is not 

 always disposed to listen gratefully to the loud and 

 cheerful songs with which they diversify their 

 labours. When once they are fairly settled, how- 

 ever, it is almost impossible to harden one's heart 

 to the point of turning them out ; their complete 

 assurance that they have a perfect right to be 

 where they are, and their outspoken satisfaction 

 over the progress of their work appeal to one's 

 feelings in a way that can hardly be resisted. After 

 the eggs are hatched out the parents have a rough 

 time of it. They spend the entire day from dawn 

 to dusk in incessant journeys backwards and 

 forwards between their hunting-grounds and nests ; 

 indeed, as has been already mentioned, so eager 

 are they over their work as often to have little 



