374 STUBOTDJB.

The first two eggs measure -82 x '62 and '85 x '63 ; the second lot
measure 1-01X *7, TO x '7, and 1-0 x '7.

"The eggs are very glossy, and the colour is a uniform dark
greenish blue, of much the same tint as the egg of Acridotheres
tristis"

543. Ampeliceps coronatus, Blyth. The Gold-crest Myna.

Ampeliceps coronatus, Sl.9 Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. BO. 693
sex; id. Cat. no. 693 ter.

Of the nidification of this beautiful species, the G-old-crest Myna,
we possess but little information. My friend Mr. Davison, who
has secured many specimens of the bird, writes :—" On the 13th
April, 1874, two miles from the town of Tavoy, on a low range of
hills about 200 feet above the sea-level, I found a nest of the Gold-
crest G-rakle. The nest was about 20 feet from the ground in a
hole in the branch of a large tree. It was composed entirely of
coarse dry grass, mixed with dried leaves, twigs, and bits of bark,
but contained no feathers, rags, or such substances as are usually
found in the nests of the other Mynas. The nest contained three
young ones only a day or two old."

544. TementicliTts pagodarum (G-m.). The Blade-headed Myna.

Teinenuchus pagodarum (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii; p. 329; Hume,
Hough Draft N. $ E. no. 687.

The Pagoda or Black-headed Myna breeds throughout the more
open, dry, and well-wooded or cultivated portions of India. In Sindh
and in the more arid and barren parts of the Punjab and Hajpoo-
tana on the one hand, or in the more humid and jungly localities
of Lower Bengal on the other, it occurs, if at all, merely as a
seasonal straggler. How Adams, quoted by Jerdon (vol. ii,
p. 330), coulcl say that he never saw it in the plains of the North-
West Provinces (where, as a matter of fact, it is one of our
commonest resident species), altogether puzzles me.

Neither in the north nor in the south does it appear to ascend
the hills or breed in them at any elevations exceeding 3000 or
4000 feet,

The breeding-season lasts from May to August, but in Upper
India the great majority lay in June.

According to my experience in Northern India it nests exclusively
in holes in trees. Dr. Jerdon says that "at Madras it breeds
about large buildings, pagodas, houses, &c." This is doubtless
correct, but has not been confirmed as yet by any of my Southern
Indian correspondents, who all talk of finding its nest in holes
of trees.

The whole is thinly lined with a few dead leaves, a little grass,
and a few feathers, and occasionally with a few small scraps of
some other soft material.

They lay from three to five eggs.