1844.] for December Meeting, 1842. 363 



more arboreal, as they seek their food upon trees, and are very rarely 

 seen on the ground. They constitute the Slurnia of Lesson. 



J. St. pagodarum ; Turdus pagodarum, Lin. (Bhahminee Mynah.) 

 Body greyish, the ear-coverts, neck, and under-parts, bright buff, with 

 mesial streaks to the feathers of different texture ; the cap black, and 

 bearing a long pendent crest of slender pointed feathers ; thighs, lower 

 tail-coverts, and tips of the outer tail-feathers, white. Female rather 

 less deeply coloured, with the crest not quite so long: and young 

 yellowish-grey, inclining to pale buff on the throat and breast; the cap 

 at first concolorous or nearly so, afterwards dusky-black and not crest- 

 ed. An abundant species in the Carnatic, and occasionally observed 

 in other parts of Southern India : in Lower Bengal it is chiefly met 

 with towards the close of the cool season, frequenting the arboreal cotton 

 then in blossom. It may often be obtained of the Calcutta birddealers. 



2. St. Malabarica : Turdus Malabaricus, Gm., but not Pastor 

 Malabaricus, apud Jerdon, Madr J I. XI, 22, which refers to the next 

 species.* (Grey Mynah.) Upper-parts grey, the forehead and throat 

 whitish, the former occasionally pure white; and entire under-parts 

 from the fore-neck ferruginous-buff, deep and bright-coloured in old 

 males, and comparatively very faint in the younger females; primaries 

 slightly green-glossed black and tipped with grey, and the middle tail- 

 feathers greyish, the rest dusky, successively more broadly tipped with 

 deep ferruginous. The wings and tail, and in fact the plumage gene- 

 rally, are quite those of a typical Sturnus. Young pale greyish, light- 

 er underneath, with rufous tips to the outer tail-feathers. There are 

 few birds which abrade their plumage so much by the time the moult- 

 ing season comes round : the colours fade, and even make a near ap- 

 proach to uniformity. It is very common in Bengal, Nepal, and 

 Assam, but apparently rare or perhaps local in the peninsula of India. 



3. St. dominicana (?); olim P. malabaricus apud Jerdon. t 

 (White-headed Mynah.) Closely allied to the preceding, but dis- 



*According to Mr. Jerdon, the Pastor nanus vel Gracula cinerea of Lesson's Traite 

 appears to refer to this species. 



f No doubt the Pastor dominicanus apud Lesson, Voy. de Belanger, stated to be 

 tolerably common on the Continent of India; but its identity with the Philippine 

 species so named, remains I suspect to be ascertained. In a letter just received from 

 Mr. Jerdon, that naturalist remarks that '''Pastor dominicanus, as described by Lesson 

 [in his Traite ?] can never be my malabaricus." 



