X. 



A MISNAMED BIRD. 



*~PHE myna has every cause to congratulate itself that it is 

 not doomed to live in London. Were it an inhabitant 

 of that great city, it would, undoubtedly, excite the wrath 

 of the street urchin, just as the Bluecoat boys do ; like these 

 latter, it would be generally mobbed, and greeted at every 

 turn with the derisive question, " Who dipped your legs in 

 the mustard pot ? " It is a pity that half a dozen street- 

 arabs could not be imported into India from London to sit 

 as a committee for revising the names of Indian birds and 

 beasts. It would only be necessary to Latinise the sugges- 

 tions of the committee in order to provide our fauna with 

 suitable names in place of the inappropriate ones which 

 scientists have been pleased to give them. Could, for in- 

 stance, any name be less suitable to the perky myna than 

 Acridotheres tristis? Who has ever seen a myna looking 

 dejected, or anything but plump and complacent ? Jerdon 

 objects to the name splendens for the common Indian crow, 

 as tending to bring scientific nomenclature into popular 

 dispute ; the adjective tristis applied to the myna is a far 

 grosser misnomer. The myna is almost as ubiquitous as 

 the crow. In common with the latter bird, it affects the 

 society of man, knowing full well upon which side the bread 

 is buttered. If India would be unthinkable without the 

 crows, an Indian garden without mynas could only be com- 

 pared to roast lamb without mint sauce. The myna is not 

 only found throughout the Indian peninsula, but in every 

 part of every station. Herein mynas and crows differ from 

 almost every bird, except the sparrow. The others are not 

 only localised in certain definite parts of the country, but in 



