on the Birds of South-eastern China. 175 



Magpie's nest, though ruinous old pagodas and holes in 

 trees are also made use of, and the deserted nest o£ Gracu- 

 Upica nigricollis is sometimes resorted to. In suitable 

 situations breeding-colonies are often found. 



The nest itself is an untidy affair of straw, dry grass, 

 pine-needles, feathers, wool, paper and other rubl)ish, and 

 invariably, as pointed out by Rickett and La Touche in 

 their ' Birds of Fokien/ contains pieces of snake's slough. 



The eggs are blue, and much resemble those of the 

 Starlings, and like so many blue eggs they vary much in 

 colour-intensity. Eggs pure white in colour have been 

 taken, and eggs with a few spots have occurred later on in 

 the season. The most usual number of eggs in a clutch 

 is four, but five, six, and seven are found, the latter 

 rarely. 



The earliest date for fresh eggs is April 15 and the 

 latest July 4, but the majority of these birds breed in 

 May and are double-brooded. 



The Mynah is a great mimic and has been heard in a wild 

 state imitating the Chinese Francolin and other species. As 

 an excellent talker, it is in great requisition among the 

 Chinese for a cage-bird. 



Eggs vary in length from 1'26 to 1*07 and in breadth from 

 •90 to "79, whilst they average 1*16 x "85. 



MUNIA ORYZIVORA. 



Java Sparrows are not very common at Hong Kong, 

 and have usually been noticed in the spring and early 

 autumn. 



On several occasions in late September and early October 

 small flocks have been seen in the trees at the Hong Kong 

 Naval Hospital and at Happy Valley, and in February a 

 solitary bird was noticed at Stonecutter's Island. 



In June 1905, the Punjabi police sergeant at the R.N. 

 Hospital captured a bird of the year, not very well able to tly, 

 in a butterfly-net, so that the species must breed somewhere 

 in south-eastern China, and seeing how extraordinarily local 

 many species are it might easily be overlooked. 



