THE MYNAS. 



ground with its beak and bobs its head. What the 

 exercise means is more than I can tell. It is so hard 

 to understand a bird. A caged Myna lightens its 

 captivity by practising all the sounds which it hears. 

 But it is not necessary to cage a tame Myna. If you 

 get it young enough it will become a member of the 

 family and live about the house like the cat. Mynas 

 make their nests in holes and lay four or five blue 

 eggs. They have two or three broods in the year, 

 generally in the monsoon, when grasshoppers are 

 cheap and plentiful. In the jungles they will appro- 

 priate holes made by woodpeckers and barbets, or 

 find hollows in rotten boughs, but in a town there are 

 always enough of suitable holes to be had in walls 

 and roofs. They do not build in chimneys like Star- 

 lings, because there are no chimneys. 



There is another species of Myna called by Jerdon 

 AcridotheresfuscuS) the Dusky Myna, which is so 

 like the common one that it is not usually distin- 

 guished, except by naturalists, but if you get a near 

 view of it you may recognise it at once by a little tuft, 

 or crest, not on the crown of its head, where birds 

 generally wear their crests, but on the bridge of its 

 nose. It also wants the little patch of yellow skin 

 behind the eye, and its general hue is more dusky. 

 This is more of a jungle bird than the other, and 

 therefore avoids Bombay, but it is common enough 

 on the other side of the harbour. The pale Bank 

 Myna (Acridotheres ginginianus), so common in 

 Guzerat, is not found here. 



Next we have some charming birds belonging to 

 another branch of the Myna family. They are small- 

 er and daintier birds than the Common Myna, and 



