84 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



By far the most common and the most interesting local 

 member of the great starling family is the myna, but he is 

 technically placed in a different genus, that of the Acrido- 

 theres, our familiar friend being known as A. Cristatellus, 

 the crested myna. No one who has been a mile or two into 

 the country, and who has anything of an eye for winged life 

 can have failed to notice a bird of somewhat stouter build 

 than the English starling, with a yellow bill and a little crest 

 springing from the root of it, black plumage with circles on 

 the expanded wings, and here and there white markings. 

 That is our local myna. There is a little in his flight to recall 

 his European cousin, and still more in the voice, different 

 though it be. A wanderer in the country in any part of 

 this or the neighbouring provinces is almost sure to meet with 

 little parties of mynas, some six or eight perhaps. When not 

 busily engaged in feeding, which they do on the ground, they 

 are usually to be seen gathered together on a tree whence their 

 musical chatter falls pleasantly on the ear, especially so in 

 winter when most other birds are silent. I have never seen 

 more than perhaps a dozen or so of mynas together at any 

 time, and therefore have no means of judging whether or no 

 they might, were there enough of them, rival a murmuration 

 of starlingsin England. Perhapsthey might. But I have many a 

 time paused on a bright winter afternoon, when shooting up- 

 country, to listen to the breezy little chorus arising from select 

 assemblages to be found anywhere within a hundred miles of 

 Shanghai. They can talk as well as sing, and that is one 

 reason why they are so popular as cage birds, a fact which would 

 have suggested a connexion with the starlings even if structure 

 and habits had not done so. Indeed there is little to choose 

 between a starling and a myna in the matter of mimicry. 

 Both have the faculty of imitation largely developed, and it 

 is no uncommon thing for a listener to be deceived into think- 

 ing he has a little circle of songsters near him when all the 

 time it is but a single starling "trying over his parts" as it 

 were. As with the English bird, the myna seeks out a hole for 

 its nest, an old tree frequently providing the necessary shelter. 

 Thence the parents maybe seen going for food, usually insects, 

 whicharefrequentlyfound,againasinEngland,onthe backs of 

 cattle, or close by them on the ground. For this reason there 

 is just as close a friendship between Chinese cattle and mynas 

 as there is between English cattle and starlings. 



There are far more beautifully dressed mynas than the 

 plain black and white variety so familiar in this neighbour- 

 hood. Some of the Indian birds are gorgeous in the extreme, 

 but the most beautiful with which I am personally acquainted 

 is the myna of Honolulu with a charming assortment of blues 

 and greys. There, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean> 



