BTTLABES. 365

524. Eulabes intermedia* (A. Hay). The Indian Grackle.

Eulabes intermedia (A. Hay), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 339.

Eulabes javanensis (Osbeck), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 693.

The Indian Grackle, under which name I include J3. andama-
nensis, Tytler, breeds, I know, in the Nepal Terai and in the
Kumaon Bhabur; and many are the young birds that I have seen.
extracted by the natives oat of holes, high up in large trees, in
the old anti-mutiny days when we used to go tiger-shooting in
these grand jungles. I never saw the eggs however, which, I
think, must have all been hatched off in May, when we used to
be out.

" In the Andamans," writes Davison, " they breed in April and
May, building a nest oŁ grass, dried leaves, &c. in holes of trees."
He also, however, never took the eggs.

Mr. J. R. Cripps tells us that this species is " common during
March to October in Dibrugarh, after which it retires to the hills
which border the east and south of the district. About the tea-
gardens of Dibrugarh there are always a number of dead trees
standing, and in these the Grackles nest, choosing those that are
rotten, in which they excavate a hole. I have seen numbers of
nests, but as these were so high up and the tree so long dead and
rotten, no native would risk going up."

Mr. J. Inglis notes from Cachar :—" This Hill-Mynah is com-
mon in the hilly district. It breeds in the holes of trees during
April, May, and June.7;

Major 0. T. Binghain writes from Tenasserim :—" I saw several
nest-holes of this bird, which was very common in the Reserve, but
none of them, were accessible; aud it wasn't till the 18th April
that I chanced on one in a low tree, the nest being in the hollow
of a stump of a broken branch. It was composed and loosely put
together of grass, leaves, and twigs, and contained three half-
fledged young and one addled egg of a light blue colour, spotted,
chiefly at the large end with purplish brown."

The eggs very similar to those of E. religiose^ but, what is very
surprising, it is very considerably smaller.

QiE.reliyiosa the eggs vary from 1*2 to 1*37 in length, and from
0-86 to 0-9 in breadth, and the average of eight is 1-31 by 0-88.

This present egg only measures 1*12 by 0-8, and it must, I
should fancy, be abnormally small.

In shape it is an extremely regular oval. The ground is a pale
greenish blue, and it is spotted and blotched pretty thickly at the

* Mr. Hume does not recognize E. javanensis and E. inteiinedia as distinct.
The following account refers to the niclification of the latter, except perhaps
Major Bingharn's later note, in which he states that he procured two distinct
sizes of eggs in the Meplay valley (Thoungyeen). It is very probable that
Major Binghani found the nests of both species on this occasion. I have seen
no specimen of E. javanensis from the Thoungyeen valley, but at Malewun,
further south, it occurs along with E. intermedia.—ED.