306 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



The Mynah Bird. 



Xo l)ii'd in Hawaii is more conspicuous or more thorougiily at home in 

 his adopted land than is the false mynah'' or mina. The mvnah was brought 

 to Hawaii l)y Dr. Wm. Hille])rand years ago to feed on the cutworm of a certain 

 moth.*' The birds flourished and multiplied and have had an important part in 

 the reduction of the pest. Although not withoiit bad habits, they must be 

 regarded as generally beneficial in their food habits. 



Had they not become fond of the seeds of the introduced lantana — and 

 tluis become directly responsible for its being spread broadcast over the 

 islands — there is little doul)t but that the mynah would have been gener- 

 ally held in higher esteem than it is today. Their size, industry and sociability 

 make them interesting objects wherever they are, and the study of thtMr nests, 

 food, and life haliits will well repay the observing bird-lover. 



The false mynah is so called to distingaiish it from the true mynah of 

 India, a bird which they resemble in size, habit and general characteristics. 

 It is an exceedingly sagacious bird, and readily learns new tricks that enable 

 it to adapt itself to peculiar and unusual conditions of life. There are cases on 

 record where the young have been taught to say single words; but in linguistic 

 attainments they are not the equal of their Indian cousins. 



Their nests, which arc built in odd places about buildings, under rafters, in 

 eaves-troughs, or occasionally saddled into forks of trees, are invariably bulky 

 affairs. Their eggs are of fair size and blue in color, resembling those of the 

 American robin. All day long they scold, call or try to sing as fancy strikes 

 them, but at night, as they congregate in certain large banian trees about the 

 city in tiocks of hundreds, the noise they make in taking leave of each other 

 and of the day, before going to roost, is little short of deafening. The first 

 faint glow in the east is the signal for them to take up the argument and the 

 work where they left off the day before. So day after day the unmusical 

 voice of the mynah, as it dins its call into the ears of the traveler, morning, 

 noon and night, comes to be the sound from Hawaii that lives longest in the 

 memory. Likely as not, years afterward, when the sight of old Diamond Head 

 and her waving cocoanut palms and the languid caress of the soft air of the 

 tropics ai-e but shadowy memories, it will be some harsh bird-note, caught by 

 the listless senses in an idle moment, that will again vividly bring to the mind 

 of the traveler the mynah. and its noisy evening song, and the twilight scene 

 it revives in fancy. 



There is a popular though erroneous belief in Hawaii that the mynah is 

 responsible for the disappearance of the native birds. The fact that this 

 noisy stranger is frequently found in the forests at an elevation of five or six 

 thousand feet, is offered as an explanation foi- th(^ singular passing from 

 the forest regions of many species of native birds. There is little reason, 



^ Acridotheres tristi.i, '^ SiKuhiplirn imi iiritiii. 



