371

" The birds during the breeding-time confine themselves closely
to their breeding-ground, so much so, that except when close
to their haunts none are ever seen.

" The size of the eggs varies from 1-00 to 1*10 in length, and
from. -70 to *80 in breadth. The average of twelve eggs is T03 in
length and *79 in breadth."

He subsequently wrote:—" I first noticed this bird breeding on
the llth March ; on the 10th, while marching, I saw some on the
side of the road and shot one, and on opening it found it was breed-
ing. Accordingly on the llth, on searching, I found their breeding-
ground, which was in the middle of a Dhund thickly studded over
with kundy trees, in the holes of which they had their nests. The
nest lay at the bottom of the hole, which was generally some 18 inches
deep, and consists of a few bits of coarse sedge-grass and feathers
of T. leucoceplialus and P. leucorodia (which were breeding close
by). Five was the maximum number of eggs, but four was the
normal number in each nest.

" I afterwards found these birds breeding in great numbers all
along the Eastern Narra wherever there were suitable trees (kundy
trees). At the place 1 first found them in, the young ones are now
many of them fledged and flying about, while in other places they
are just beginning to lay.

" The total length of their breeding-ground in any district must
be close on 200 miles, but entirely confined to the banks of the
river. If you looked four miles from the river, one side or the
other, you would not see one. Can Pastor roseus breed in India
in some similar secluded spot ? I have been rather unlucky in
getting their eggs, as at each place which I visited personally the
birds had either young ones or were just going to lay."

The eggs of this species are moderately broad ovals, sometimes
slightly elongated, always more or less appreciably pointed towards
the small end. The shell is extremely smooth and has a fine gloss.
The colour, which is extremely uniform in all the specimens, is an
excessively delicate pale blue with a faint greenish tinge, a very
beautiful colour. They vary from 1 to 1-18 in length, and from
0-71 to 0-82 in breadth.

537. Sturnia blytMi (Jerdon). Btyth's Myna.

Temenuchus blythii (Jerd?), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 331.
Sturnia blythii (Jerd.), Hume, Cat. no. 689.

Mr. Iver Macpherson sent me from Mysore three eggs and a
skin of a Myna, which latter, although in very bad order, is un-
doubtedly S. blythii. He says :—" It is very possible that the bird
now sent is S. malabarica, and it is such a bad specimen that I
fear it will not be of much use to you for the purpose of identifi-
cation. I think it is Sturnia Uythii, as Jerdon says that S. mala-
barica is only a cold-weather visitant in the south of India.

" I will, however, try and procure you a good specimen, of the

24*