STUBNOBNIS. 533 



side of the head ; the wing is blunt and the tail is slightly 

 graduated ; the sexes are alike and the young are brown. 



544. Temenuchus pagodarum. The Black-headed Myn<i. 



Turdus pagodarum, Gm. Syst. Nat. i, p. 816 (1788). 



Sturnia pagodarum (Gm.), Blyih, Cat. p. 110; Hume, Cat. no. 687; 



Leyye, Birds Ceyl. p. 677 ; Oates, B. B. i, p. 382 ; Barnes, Birds 



Bom. p. 256. 

 Temenuchus pagodarum (Gm.), Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, p. 528; Jerd. 



B. I. ii, p. 329; Hume, N. $ E. p. 432 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xiii, 



p. 73 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. i, p. 374. 



Popoya maina, Bamuni maina, Puhaia, Hind. ; Monghyr pawi, Beng. ; 

 Pabiya pawi at Muttra ; Papatn yorinki, Tel. ; Popata pariki, Rawanati, 

 Tarn. ; Martintro, Port, in Ceylon. 



Coloration. Head from forehead to nape with crest black ; sides 

 of the head, sides and back of the neck, and the whole lower 

 plumage as far as the vent rich buff, the feathers of the back of 

 the neck, throat, and breast much elongated and with the shafts 

 pale ; vent, thighs, and under tail-coverts white ; whole upper 

 plumage (except the parts already described), the wing-coverts, 

 tertiaries, and secondaries grey, a few of the feathers of the back 

 with buff shaft-streaks ; primaries and primnry-co verts black, the 

 former tipped with grey ; tail brown, broadly tipped with white ; 

 the middle pair of feathers wholly greyish brown with black shafts. 



The young are buffy brown, somewhat rufous beneath and on 

 the sides of the head ; crown of head dark brown. 



Bill blue at the base, then greenish, yellow at the tip ; irides 

 greenish white ; legs bright yellow (Jerdon). 



Length 8'5 ; tail 3 ; wing 4'3 ; tarsus 1*15 ; bill from gape 1*05. 



Distribution. The whole of India proper as far east as the longi- 

 tude of Calcutta ; Ceylon. This species is found throughout the 

 Himalayas ordinarily up to 4000 feet, but it occasionally occurs in 

 summer, as at Gilgit, at 8000 feet. It extends into Afghanistan. 



Blyth, probably by some mistake, records this bird from Arrakan, 

 and Jerdon from Assam. 



Habits, $*c. Chiefly a ground feeder. Breeds from May to 

 August, constructing a flimsy nest of grass and feathers in a hole 

 of a tree or a building, and laying from three to five eggs, which 

 measure about -97 by '75. 



Genus STURNORNIS, Legge, 1879. 



The sole member of the genus Sturnornis resembles in many 

 respects the Mynas of the genus Sturnia, but has a stouter bill, a 

 very blunt wing, and a triangular patch of bare skin behind the 

 eye. 



The sexes are quite alike. The habits are said by Legge to be 

 exclusively arboreal, but I imagine that this bird will be found to 

 be in some measure a ground feeder, like other arboreal Mynas. 



