THE MYNAS. I 29 



to see it. Both this and the last fly like Starlings, 

 straight and swiftly. 



The best-known of all the tribe among bird-fanciers 

 is the Bengal Myna, a big, rather coarse, glossy 

 black bird, with an orange-yellow beak and two 

 " ears " of bare yellow skin. But it is only a Bombay 

 bird in the sense that it is never absent from the 

 Crawford Market. Scarcely any bird in India is 

 held in higher esteem as a talker, for it has a rich 

 voice of great variety and compass and is really a 

 clever mimic. A friend of mine came into possession 

 of one which had taught itself the whole series of 

 noises with which a Hindoo lets the world know that 

 he is scouring his teeth and cleansing his mucous 

 membranes generally, and it used to rehearse these 

 in the morning. It had to be sent into exile till 

 chotee hazree was over. 



There is yet another bird which, though not 

 usually called a Myna, must go with them. Un- 

 fortunately it lacks a good English name. Up- 

 country it is commonly called the Jowaree Bird, for 

 it is an incorrigible plunderer of ripening grain. 

 Jerdon calls it the Rose-coloured Starling (Pastor 

 roseus). This bird spends the sumrrier and brings 

 up its family somewhere in Syria, or Mesopotamia, 

 but almost before the rains are over it returns and 

 overruns India in vast hordes, driving the farmer 

 to despair. On the coast we know it best as the 

 most rowdy habitue of the Coral Tree and the Silk- 

 cotton Tree, already mentioned. These two trees, 

 botanically so different, unite in filling a very curious 

 place in the economy of nature. Soon after the 

 monsoon is over they part with every leaf and stancl 

 '7 



