MYNAS 33 



heads have a debased look, and they have neither 

 the pleasant notes nor the alluringly familiar ways 

 of their relatives. Like the latter, and very often in 

 company with them, they spend their nights, save 

 during the nesting season, in huge mobs, which, 

 if possible, are even more vociferous than those 

 of mynas. At sundown the din proceeding from 

 such assemblies is often so overpowering as to render 

 even the concerts of the crows or of the great 

 autumnal crickets temporarily inaudible. Although 

 roosting in and haunting gardens, they never show 

 any desire to enter houses, and they invariably nest 

 in trees. Their choice of nesting materials is almost, 

 if not quite, as indiscriminate as that of mynas, and, 

 as they have no special desire for privacy in family 

 life, and often build gregariously, trees, such as 

 tamarinds, that provide convenient sites, are often 

 much disfigured by the results of their architecture. 

 The nests, although to all appearance very incoherent 

 and carelessly ordered, are, in fact, wonderfully dur- 

 able, and seem to be used for many successive years 

 by their proprietors. Processes of annual repair 

 begin to take place in April, and by the middle of 

 May the nests are in good order and tenanted. The 

 relatively late period of nesting is probably connected 

 with the nature and position of the nests. Those of 

 the common mynas are placed in holes in walls or 

 other protected sites in or about buildings, and must, 

 consequently, be equally safe at any time of year; 



