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Birds. 9585 



Notes on the Commoti Miuah of India. By Major Norgate. 



LiNNEUS calls this bird Airidothcses tristis ; why he called it 

 trislis" I am at a loss to understand, for the bird is about one of the 

 most lively in India, and sports a plumage of several colours — black, 

 snuff-colour, white, yellow, and the irides bright red with white dots; 

 certainly snuff-colour predominates, but the colours I have mentioned 

 can hardly be called " tristis." Well, this sad-coloured bird is most 

 abundant all over India, both in the plains and, in the hot weather, at 

 a considerable height up the hills. It belongs to the Sturnidae or 

 Gtarling family, and flies about in small family parties of six or seven 

 to twenty or thirty, but most often of the two old birds and their 

 young ones for the season ; and when a large flock is seen it consists 

 of four or five families united for the time being, either in quest of 

 food or from being attracted by the screams of two birds fighting, for 

 there are constant misunderstandings going on among themselves, and 

 they are most pugnacious. When two of these birds have a fight it 

 generally takes place on the ground, and they seize hold of one another 

 with their claws, beatiug their opponent with their wings, and roll 

 over and over, uttering the most piercing screams : this soon attracts 

 =ihe whole family, and the old birds try to separate them, if one may 

 judge from the severe pecks that are administered to both belligerents. 

 Sometimes the whole family are suddenly imbued with the spirit of 

 fighting, and have a regular set to, often ending in one having its 

 wing broken : during these little wars the noise the birds make is quite 

 surprising and very disagreeable. 



The minah is a very sociable bird, and often selects the eaves of a 

 verandah, a hole in a wall or a water-pipe for its nest; it will build in 

 a room if it can get in and out easily ; sometimes it selects a chimney, 

 and the noise the two birds make when employed on their nest, coming 

 down the funnel of the chimney into the room, as it were through a 

 speaking-trumpet, has a most curious effect. The minah in size is 

 about that of the common thrush, but from its habit of puffing out its 

 feathers it sometimes looks twice that size. Its voice or note is very 

 loud and powerful ; at one time a deep croak, then a loud whistle. 

 It is very laughable to see the way the bird makes these curious 

 noises ; it generally commences by two or three nods of the head, as 

 if to inflate its throat, and then utters a series of croaks, grunts, thrills, 

 varied by a whistle and a scream, with a few really pretty notes. 

 When it flies off the ground or a tree it utters a low sort of shaky 

 VOL. XXIII. 2 D 



