STUENIA PAGODAEUM. 



(THE BEAHMINY MYNA.) 



Turdus pagoda-rum, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 816 (1788). 



Temenuchus pagodarum (Gmel.), Cabanis, Cat. B. Mus. Hem. i. p. 204 (1851) ; Jerclon, B. of 



Ind. ii. p. 329 (1863) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 462 ; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 386 ; 



Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 432 (1874); Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 419; Legge, Ibis, 



1875, p. 398. 

 Pastor pagodarum (Gmel.), Wagler, Syst. Av. Pastor, sp. 8 (1827) ; Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 95. 

 Sturnia pagodarum (Gmel.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1844, xiii. p. 363 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 



p. 110 (1849); Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1877, p. 407; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 221. 

 Hetwromis pagodarum (Gmel.), Gray, Gen. Birds, ii. p. 335 (1846); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 



p. 125 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 217. 

 The Black-headed Myna, Jerdon, B. of India ; The Pagoda Starling, Pagoda Mytia (Ke- 

 laart). Popoya Maina, Hind. (Jerdon) ; Monghyr Pawi, Bengal. ; Puhaia, Upper 



Provinces of India (Blyth) ; Martintro, Portuguese in Ceylon. 



Adult male and female. Length 8-0 to 8 - 3 inches ; wing 4*1 to 4-3 ; tail 2-3 to 2-7 ; tarsus T05 to l - 2 ; middle toe 

 and claw 1-1 ; bill to gape 1*05. 



Iris white or greenish white ; bill with the basal half blue, which extends to the inside of the mouth, terminal half 

 gamboge-yellow ; legs and feet pale or sickly yellow ; claws yellow. 



Lores, head above, round the gape, and point of chin shining black, the feathers of the occiput and nape much attenuated 

 and very long, forming a crest 1*5 inch long in fine examples, and which reaches down to the back; neck, throat, 

 and all beneath, except the abdomen, red-buff, the centres of the feathers on the throat, chest, and hind neck, 

 where they are attenuated as in the crest, paler; back, wing-coverts, tertials, the greater part of outer secondary 

 webs, lower flanks, thighs, and central tail-feathers dove-grey, the latter with a shade of brown; primaries, 

 winglet, inner part of secondaries, and remaining tail-feathers brown-black, the primaries washed with greyish at 

 their tips; under wing-coverts and tips of tail-feathers white, which extends half up the lateral pair; abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts white, washed with buff. 



In abraded plumage the centres of the throat and chest-feathers become very light, giving a striated appearance to 

 these parts. 



Young. Birds of the year in nestling plumage have the iris bluish white, slightly mottled, and with a dark inner rim; 

 the bill coloured as in the adult, but with the colours duller; feet not so yellow. 



The head is brown and crestless and dusky ashy grey in colour ; the wing-coverts and tertials pervaded with brownish 

 and the quills not so black as in the adult; beneath, the throat and breast are fawn-grey, paling to albescent on 

 the belly and under tail-coverts. Before acquiring the adult dress the grey plumage appears to become paler ; and 

 during the change examples may be obtained in a curious-looking attire, some having the whole of the lower parts 

 (both on the breast and back) in adolescent plumage, sharply defined against the duller lines of the head and neck 

 in the dress of the nestling. 



Obs. Indian specimens from the Himalayas southwards are identical with Ceylonese ; they vary inter se in the length 

 of the crest (probably due to age), intensity of the red under-surfaee coloration, distinctness of the chest- and 

 neck-strise, and the amount of white at the tips of the tail-feathers. Mr. Ball gives the dimensions of a Chota- 

 Nagpur example (Sirguja) as — wing 4-2 inches, tail 2-8, tarsus I'l ; two males in the national collection from the 

 N."W. Provinces have the wings 4-1 and 4-3 inches, and the bills to gape 0-95 and 0-96 inch respectively ; one from 

 Kamptee — wing 4-2 inches, bill 0-98 inch ; two from the N.W. Himalayas — wings 4-1 and 4-2 inches, bills 0-92 and 

 0-96 : the latter has an unusually long crest (1-9 inch), and the coloration of the underparts very rich, with 

 the strife scarcely indicated. 



