THE MYNAH. 57 



creditable resistance to aggression, he does not seem, 

 as a rule, to interfere with other birds, though I have 

 seen him clinging to the entrance of a sparrow's nest 

 in a manner that betokened designs either on the 

 babies or the bedding ; I fear possibly the former, 

 since I have noticed a small house-lizard in a Mynah's 

 bill, and from such a victim to a young bird is not a 

 very long step. At the same time, a Mynah likes 

 a warm nest, so perhaps a desire to borrow a little 

 upholstery was the real motive. The Mynah's eggs 

 are of a cheerful light blue, like those of most 

 starlings, and his young, when fledged, are like himself, 

 but less brightly and distinctly marked. I have 

 seen young birds with brown heads, which may be 

 either a " sport " or the result of the softer plumage 

 of the young getting sooner rusty on that part. 

 Mr. Aitken in Hume's " Nest and Eggs of Indian 

 Birds," gives an interesting account of a pair of 

 Mynahs which in every alternate brood produced a 

 white young one. I have seen several white Mynahs 

 myself ; one in particular which Mr. Rutledge had was 

 very interesting, having assumed its natural colour at 

 the first moult — a, contingency which is always 

 possible with albinos unless they have pink eyes. 

 On one occasion also I saw a bird in the Bazaar with 

 pale cinnamon body-plumage, and once the skin of 

 one such was submitted to me, which showed a 



