144 
thievish character, some idea may be formed of the nuisance they 
are. There is, however, a redeeming point in their character, viz. 
that they are very efficient scavengers. An officer of the Bombay 
army told me an anecdote illustrative of their sagacity, which he 
himself witnessed. Some crows had been sitting near a young dog, 
watching him whilst engaged with a bone. Having apparently con- 
certed the plan, one of them alighted, stepped up and took a peck 
at the dog’s tail; the dog, irritated, made a snap at the bully; 
on which a comrade, who appears to have been ready, inade a dash 
and went off with the prize. He told me that he had seen another 
crow coolly walk off with a bit of bread, having actually taken it out 
of the hand of a child who was eating it. No one who has not been 
in India can form an idea of the noise which these crows make. In 
the morning, in Bombay, the tops of some of the bungalows are 
covered with them, squabbling and chattering, and it is reported that 
these black gentry are not proof against the seducing influence of the 
pots of toddy hanging up in the cocoa-nut trees. The juice of these 
trees is harmless before the sun is hot, but if taken after, has a deci- 
dedly inebriating effect. The common Crow begins to build at the 
end of April, forming its nest of sticks. It lays four eggs, of a dull 
greenish-blue, blotched and spotted with greenish-brown and grey, 
1,4,th in. in length by rather more than | inch in width. The eggs, 
however, differ in size and colour. 
Corvus cutminatus, Sykes. Larce Biack Crow. 
Less numerous, and of less intrusive and impertinent habits than 
the last. It breeds at the same time, and lays the same number of 
eggs as the Common Crow of India. The eggs are of a pale blue 
dashed and spotted with olive and grey, | inch and rather more than 
;i;ths of an inch in length, by 1 inch and rather more than ?,ths of 
an inch in width. The eggs of this Crow also vary in size and colour. 
Family SruRNIDx. 
Subfamily SruRNINz. 
Genus Pastor. 
Pastor Tristis, Temm. Common Myna. 
This sprightly talkative bird is common in Western India. It 
lives in small flocks, and is a close attendant on cattle, walking 
amongst them with a cheerful upright gait, its head inclined, now on 
this side now on the other, watching for insects, all the while talking 
and muttering with its peculiarly smooth and oily note. It is a great 
favourite with the natives, who keep numbers of them in cages. The 
Myna breeds during the month of May, making its nest in the holes 
of trees and buildings, also in stacks and ricks. It lays as many as 
six eggs, of a pale blue colour, | inch and rather more than {3,ths of 
an inch in length, by 5%ths of an inch in width. Eggs out of the 
same nest differ in size. 
