Genus ETJLABES*. 
Bill veiy stout, deep at the base, the gape without the rictal curve of the members of the 
preceding genera; the culmen well curved, the under mandible slightly broader than the upper 
at the base ; nostrils basal, rather small and round, placed in a depression. Wings long, the 3rd 
and 4th quills the longest. Tail short and even. Legs and feet very stout, and covered with 
strong transverse scutes ; tarsus longer than the middle toe. Claws much curved. 
Head adorned with naked skin and wattles of a yellow colour. 
EULABES BELIGIOSA. 
(THE SOUTHERN BLACK MYNA.) 
Gracula religiosa, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 164 (1766) ; Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 
1840, xi. p. 24; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 108 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 125 (1852); Layard, Ann. Sc Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 216; Horsf. & Moore, 
Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 522 (1856). 
Eulabes religiosa, Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 337 (1863); Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 40; Holdsw. 
P. Z. S. 1872, p. 463; Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 435 (1874); Legge, Ibis, 1874, 
p. 23; Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1877, p. 407; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 221.^ 
Gracula minor, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1844, xiii. p. 134. 
The Minor, Edwards, Birds, pi. 17 ; The Jungle-GracJcle, The Jungle-Myna, The Southern 
Hill-Myna (Jerdon) ; The Black Myna, or Glossy Myna, in the south of India. Kokni- 
mama. Hind. ; Honda gorinka, Telugu (Jerdon). 
Selalaheniya, Southern Province; Ilalalaheniya, Northern Province, Sinhalese. 
Adult male and female. Length 9-5 to 10-25 inches ; wing 5-7 to 5-8 ; tail 2-7 to 3-0 ; tarsus 1-2 to 1-25 ; middle toe 
and claw 1-4.; hind toe from base 0-7 ; bill to gape 1-4. 
Ins brown, the outer edge white, darkly mottled; bill orange-yellow; legs and feet citron-yellow; lappets and cheek- 
spot rich yellow, the latter tinged with blue at the upper edge. 
The wattles or ornainentation of the head consist of a naked yellow patch on the cheek, a similar stripe running from 
the eye to the side of the nape, where it expands into a broad lappet, running forward again at each side of the 
occiput to the top of the head in a narrow “plaited” stripe. 
Entire plumage glossy black, with strong meiallie reflections of rich purple on the head, cheeks and hind neck, and on the 
rest of the upper surface and throat with green; wing-coverts and lower parts margined with green; chest and 
sides of breast margined with bronze and purple; primaries with a white bar across the middle, commencing on 
the inner web of the 2nd, and ending on the outer web of the 8th, 
Young. These have the flaps slightly developed ; they are very short, and with the rest of the lappet are of a dull yellow ; 
The Grackles or Glossy Mynas, together with some allied genera, differ in their stout curved bOls, unangulated gape 
aiid metallic plumage from the true Mynas and Starlings, and are grouped by most systematists in a distinct subfamily’ 
They constitute the Lamprotornime of Jerdon. Ornithologists, however, do not agree as to the various Asiatic and 
- trican genera which fall within the limits of the subfamily, and it is not necessary in this work to adopt it. The 
.amprotormnoe appear, as Jerdon remarks, to grade into the Starlings through the genus Caloniis; and the aberrant 
C^a>oglossa sinlo^tera (the Spotled-wiuged Starling), which has been placed in this subfamily, does not appear to belong to it 
