1840.] 



of the Peninsula of India. 



21 



This well known and common bird is found througliout India, pre- 

 ferring tbe neighbourhood of cultivation and villages, and never found 

 in high or dense jungle. It roosts in numerous flocks, generally on 

 high trees, and disperses in various parties of two, four, six, or more, 

 about sun-rise. Some enter the villages and cantonments, others attend 

 flocks of sheep or cattle, which they follow while grazing, feeding on 

 the grasshoppers and other insects, disturbed by the treading of the 

 cattle. The Myna also will feed on grain, and serds of various kinds, 

 and is very fond of white ants. Its flight is swift, steady and direct. 

 It breeds, I am informed, in the holes of old trees, walls, old buildings, 

 &c., during the hot weather, and is said to have 3 or 4 eggs of a green- 

 ish blue colour. It is very often taken when young, find caged, be- 

 coming very familiar, and learning to repeat words and sentences with 

 great ease. Its cries are many and varied, most of them harsh, loud 

 and disagreeable, but it has also some sweet and agreeable notes. 

 Length varies from 10^ to nearly 12 inches. Irides reddish brown, 

 studded (as Colonel Sykes remarks) with whitish specks on their ex- 

 ternal margin ; bill and legs yellow ; naked skin round eyes, orange 

 yellow. 



164. — P. fuscus, Wagl. ?— P. Mahraitensis, Sykes ?—IJiU Myna. 



This very closely allied species, I have found, in greatest abundance, 

 on the Neilgherries, where it accompanies cattle like the last (whose 

 place it supplies here), and also frequents gardens, eating various seeds, 

 and fruit. I have also seen this species in the Wynaad, and I think, 

 on one occasion, in Mysore. I have united Colonel Sykes' name to 

 that previously given by Wagler, and have little doubt but that they 

 are the same bird. Colonel Sykes however, says " possesses no crest," 

 and Wagler does not mention one, though he probably infers it, as he 

 says, " very similar to P. TristisJ' Now my specimens, though they 

 have not the flowing crest of the common Myim, have the feathers of 

 the head lengthened, and those of the forehead are somewhat raised, 

 as in P. cristatellus. It has not the naked yellow skin round the eye 

 of P. tristis. Length 9 to 9| inches ; wing 5; tail 3; tarsus 1 -^^{[is ; 

 bill to front nearly -j.7_tlis ; at gape 1 ^y^hs. Irides greyish white ; bill 

 orange yellow ; feet gamboge yellow. 



165. — P. pagodarum, Temm. — Turdus pagodarum, Gmel. — Le Mar- 

 tin B rame, Le Vaill. Ois. lyAfr. pi. 95-2. — Popoya Myna, H, — Brah- 

 miny Myna of Europeans in India. 



