376 STTJENID^i. 



fresh eggs, and three young birds respectively. Two of the nests 

 were in the nest-holes of Barbets, from which I had taken eggs 

 the month previous. 7th May, another nest containing four fresh 

 eggs. 



" I can confirm Dr. Jerdon's statement, quoted in the Bough 

 Draft of 'Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds,' relative to this 

 species breeding in large buildings, having observed several nests 

 myself this season at Belgaum on the roofs of bungalows. In 

 one bungalow, the mess-house of the 83rd Begt., there were no 

 less than three nests at one time built under the eaves of the 

 roof." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say :— 

 " Not quite so common as Acridotheres tristis. Breeds at Satara in 

 May." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken remarks : — " In Nests and Eggs, p. 433, 

 you write : — ' Dr. Jerdon says that at Madras it breeds about 

 large buildings, pagodas, houses, &c. This is doubtless correct, but 

 has not been confirmed as yet by any of my Southern Indian 

 correspondents, who all talk of finding its nest in holes of trees.' 

 On the 29th June last year I was at the Anniversary Meeting of 

 the Medical College, and the proceedings were disturbed by the 

 incessant clatter of two broods of young of this species. The nests 

 were in holes in the wall near the roof, and the two pairs of old 

 birds, which were feeding their young, kept coming and going the 

 whole time, flying in at the windows and popping into the holes 

 over the peoples' heads. In the following month a nest of yonng 

 were taken out of a hole in the outer wall of a house 1 was staying 

 at, and the birds laid again and hatched another brood. 



" I very rarely saw the Black-headed Myna in Bombay, Poona, 

 or Berar, but here, in Madras, it is, if anything, commoner than 

 A. tristis." 



And Mr. J. Davidson, writing from Mysore, also confirms 

 Jerdon's statement ; he says : — " T. pagodarum breeds here in holes 

 in the roofs of houses as well as in trees." 



Of the breeding of this Myna in Ceylon, Colonel Legge says : — 

 " In the northern part of Ceylon this Myna breeds in July and 

 August, and nests, I am informed, in the holes of trees." 



Mr. A. G. R. Theobald notes that " early in August I found a 

 nest of T. pagodarum at Ahtoor, the hill-station of the Shevaroys. 

 It was down in the inside of a partly hollow nut-tree log, attached 

 to a scaffolding, about 2 J feet down and, say, 35 feet from the 

 ground, and was composed of dry leaves and a few feathers. It 

 contained three fresh eggs." 



The eggs of this Myna are, of course, glossy and spotless, and 

 the colour varies from very pale bluish white to pale blue or 

 greenish blue. I have never seen an egg of this species of the full 

 clear sky-blue often exhibited by those of A. tristis, S. contra, and 

 A. giuginianus. 



The eggs vary in length from 0'86 to 1-15, and in breadth from 

 0*66 to 0*8 ; but the average of fifty-four eggs is 0-97 by 0-75. 



