GRAKLE. 149 



India,* and calls it a Thrush, as it has a notch at the tip of the upper 

 mandible ; but this, though a general circumstance, is not an 

 exclusive one, as some birds, by no means of that Genus, have it, 

 and others, reputedly Thrushes, have no trace of such character. 

 In the Hindustan Language it is called Desy Meina; at Ceylon, 

 Kawadiya, or Eoms-kowy-deah. 



A. — Gracula melanoptera, Daud.'n. 286. 



Size of the former, and differs greatly in plumage, being wholly 

 white, excepting the quills, which are black. 



One of these is in the Museum at Paris, and appears to be a 

 mere Variety. 



B. — Length seven inches and a half. Bill one inch, deep yellow ; 

 at the base arises a bare yellow space, continuing beneath the eye, 

 and behind it, for near a quarter of an inch, ending in a point ; 

 plumage in general fine pale ash-colour, paler on the lower belly 

 and vent ; sides of the head inclining to dusky ; lesser wing coverts 

 as the back ; the greater, and second quills dusky black, the base 

 of the latter white for some length, forming a bar ; greater quills 

 white, but dusky in the middle; tail two inches long, rounded, 

 wholly white, the quills reach to three-fourths of the length, when 

 closed ; legs pale yellow. 



Inhabits India ; found at Cawnpore, in September. — General 

 Hardwicke. 



* I have before mentioned, that the inhabitants of the Isle of Bourbon having imported 

 some of these birds, for the purpose of destroying the grasshoppers, they increased so fast, 

 that after having cleared away the insects, they attacked not only the fruits, but the young 

 pigeons, and became a greater scourge than the grasshoppers had been before. We learn, 

 however, that this assertion is not precisely the fact, and most likely M. BufFon had been 

 misinformed; for M. Duplessin, who gave it as his opinion, that these birds might usefully 

 be introduced into that part of Spain, situated towards Africa, by way of destroying the 

 locusts, had been many years resident in the Isle of Bourbon, where he had seen them intro- 

 duced; that, indeed, they have much multiplied there, but so far from their being considered 

 ai a nuisance, the laws for their preservation are still in force. 



