Sturnia nemoricola, Jerd., Hume, cat. no. 688 bis.
Mr. Gates writes from Lower Pegu:—"Of S. nemoricola I have taken two sets of eggs: one set of two eggs fresh, and one of three on the point of being hatched; the former on 12th May, the latter on 6th June. In size the two clutches vary extraordinarily. The first two eggs measure ·82 x ·62 and ·85 x ·63; the second lot measure 1·01 x ·7, 1·0 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, Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 693 sex; id. cat. no. 693 ter.
Of the nidification of this beautiful species, the Gold-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 Grakle. 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. Temenuchus pagodarum (Gm.). The Black-headed Myna.
Temenuchus pagodarum (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 329; Hume, Rough
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 Rajpootana 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), could 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.