STUENIA PAGODAEUM. 
679 
in company with the Common Mynaj picking up grasshoppers and other insects. Jerdon remarks that it has 
a variety of calls and a rather pleasing song, and that it is frequently caged and domesticated, imitating any 
other bird placed near it. 
Nidification . — In the northern parts of Ceylon this Myna breeds in July and August, and nests, I am 
informed, in holes of trees ; the same is the case in Northern India ; but in Madras it is said by J erdon to 
build about large buildings, pagodas, houses, &c., although some correspondents of Mr. Hume testify to its 
preferring trees to these latter situations. Mr. Blewitt, an experienced Indian oologist, has found the nest in 
mango-, tamarind-, and jamun-trees from May until July, and says that feathers, grass, and sometimes an odd 
piece of rag are loosely placed on the bottom of the hole for the eggs to repose on. The eggs are smaller than 
those of the Common Myna and very pale in colour, varying from “ bluish white to pale blue or greenish 
blue;” they average in size, according to Mr. Hume, 0'97 inch in length by 0-75 inch in breadth. 
Subgenus STFENOENIS. 
Bill larger, longer, and less compressed than in Sturnia ; the culmen straighter ; under 
mandible stout. Tail longer in proportion to the wings, with the under tail-coverts less 
lengthened than in Sturnia ; 2nd quill considerably shorter than the 3rd, which is the longest. 
