424 Canaries and Cage-Birds. 



MALABAR MYNAH (Sltirnia Malabarica), HiNDOSTAN. 

 (The illustration was drawn from live specimens bred by the Author.) 

 Sturntis Malabarkus (Russ), Turdiis Malabai-icus, Sturnia Malabarica, Graoila Malabarica, Pastor pagodarum, Acridolherei 

 Malab., Pastor Malab. et caniceps, Blythi Malab. et cinerms. Pastor nifocinercus, Helaerornis Malab., Maina affinis, 

 Temeiuchiis Malab. English dealers' name — Grey-headed Pagoda Starling. German name — "Graukiipfiger Mainastar." 



A dwarf amongf the Starlings is the Malabar Mynah, for he is but slightly larger than 

 a Chaffinch. The soft brown of his body and the grey colour of the head and neck 

 harmonise well. In the aviary the bird is extremely gentle, and his short but frequently 

 repeated song is not disagreeable. Undoubtedly the best-tempered and most amiable of all 

 the foreign Starlings, this species should be made welcome to any aviary. I possessed a pair 

 for more than six years, and had the opportunity of watching how these intelligent birds 

 educated themselves until they learnt the serious business of bringing up a family, which they 

 did without interfering with other birds. 



Their first attempt at nesting consisted of a few dry leaves dropped into a small 

 parrot-box. In the following year they made a slovenly nest of leaves, hay, and fibres, and 

 laid two blue eggs with dark brown spots. These they left often, preferring to creep in and 

 out of the box to the slow work of incubating. A subsequent laying they hatched ; but as 

 soon as the young made their entry into the world, the old birds threw them out of the 

 nest. The broods of the following year shared a similar fate, but by that time the old 

 birds fed them for a few days. At last they brought up one young, and the year after the 

 Starlings took possession of a cigar nest-box, and went to work steadily, building a very fair 

 nest, in which they hatched three eggs, and brought up the brood with great care. I followed 

 the plan of never giving much food at a time, and making the birds work for it. Their 

 food-dish, containing ^g'g, bread-crumbs, German paste, and ants' eggs, I partly covered with 

 a thin layer of garden-mould, and thus taught them to dig out the richer bits. One hour 

 I gave them a few mealworms, another some spiders, or little morsels of raw beef, or a 

 handful of live ants, mould, and larvae, and so on, until the young birds were able to take 

 care of themselves. 



ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR {Pastor roseus), India. 



Sturmis roseus (Russ), Turdus roseus, Turdus Seleucis et suratcnsis, Merula rosea, Acridothercs roseus, Cracnla rosea. Dealers' 



name — Rose Starling. German name — "Rosenstar," "Star Amsel," " Heuschreckenstar." 



The Rose-coloured Pastor is a native of India, but soinetimes considerable numbers of 

 this bird visit Southern Europe, and periodically he is met with in Central and even in 

 Northern Europe. His wanderings seem to depend on the fruitfulness of grasshoppers. I 

 doubted the accounts I had read of Starlings waging a war of extermination against locusts 

 and grasshoppers ; till seeing one day a Rose-coloured Pastor offered for sale, I remembered that 

 I had a hot-pit over-run with crickets, and resolved to try an experiment. The Pastor was 

 placed in an aviary, and I proceeded to catch crickets by placing balls of crumpled brown 

 paper into the warmest corners of the pit. Hundreds of lively crickets could be shaken out 

 of the papers in the morning, and I could thus produce at pleasure something like a swarm 

 of grasshoppers. A well-bred terrier will face any number of his natural enemies — rats ; but 

 his zeal is nothing compared to the Pastor's powers of methodical destruction of grasshoppers 

 and crickets. The crickets covered the ground on which the bird stood ; they ran up his 

 legs and over his body, and coolly would he peck away, devouring one after the other, until 

 none were left. Where he put all the insects seemed incomp''ehensible ; but the immense 



