400 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE NILGHIRIS 
should say the evidence was insufficient to class it as a Sonth- 
ern Indian bird. * 
678.—Dendrocitta leucogastra, Gould. The Long- 
tailed Magpie. 
This beautiful species occurs on the slopes of the Nilghiris 
from about 5,000 feet, but it is not common. It is much more 
numerous in the Wynaad, but I did not observe it in Mysore. 
It is, unlike D. rufa, a forest species, keeping to the evergreen 
forests, and avoiding deciduous jungle and bamboo forests, while 
D. rufa delights in these. It has, however, much the same 
habits as 7). rufa; the note is similar, but louder, harsher, and 
less metallic. 
The following are the measurements of a splendid adult 
female :— 
Length, 19:2 ; expanse, 17°6; tail, 12°25 ; wing, 5°65 ; tarsus, 
1:12; bill from gape, 1:12; weight, 3°5 ozs. Bill black ; legs 
and feet dull black ; irides deep brown. 
684.—Acridotheres tristis, Zin. The Myna. 
This Myna in the south of India (at any rate in the district 
embraced in the present paper) does not ascend the hills at 
all (while in Northern India, at Simla for instance, it is not 
uncommon), but at the foot of the hills, and in the Wynaad, it 
occurs not uncommonly. 
Wynaad specimens are identical with those from Simla and 
other parts of Upper India, having the black of the throat 
and upper breast abruptly defined, and the rest of the upper 
parts pale, and not as in birds from Ceylon and Anjango, where 
the dark colour of the throat and breast coalesce with the colour 
of the lower parts which is also dark. 
686 dis.—Acridotheres mahrattensis, Sykes. The 
Southern Dusky Myna. 
This Myna is very abundant on the Nilghiris, especially on the. 
higher ranges. It also oceurs throughout the Wynaad and Mysore 
but in diminished numbers. They are very fond of attending 
on cattle while grazing, catching the grasshoppers and other 
insects disturbed; and, as mentioned by Jerdon, they are very 
partial to clinging to the stems of the Lobelia excelsa, and L 
have shot them with their foreheads completely covered with 
pollen from the flowers. They also do immense damage to the 
fruit gardens on the Nilghiris, and it is next to impossible, with- 
out the aid of nets or other means, to preserve pears from their 
depredations. 
* T should say, certainly, does not occur in Southern India —ED, S. F. 
