From Cachar Mr. J. Inglis writes:—­“The Pied Pastor is very common all the year.  It breeds during March, April, May, and June, making its nest on any sort of tree about 15 feet or more from the ground; about 100 nests may often be seen together.  It prefers nesting on trees on the open fields.  I do not know the number of its eggs.”

The eggs are typically moderately broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end, but pyriform and elongated examples occur; in fact, a great number of the eggs are more or less pear-shaped.  Like those of all the members of this subfamily, the eggs are blue, spotless, and commonly brilliantly glossy.  In shade they vary from a delicate bluish white to a pure, though somewhat pale, sky-blue, and not uncommonly are more or less tinged with green.  They vary in length from 0.95 to 1.25, and in breadth from 0.75 to 0.9; but the average of one hundred eggs is 1.11 by 0.82 nearly.

556.  Sturnopastor superciliaris, Blyth. The Burmese Pied Myna.

Sturnopastor superciliaris, Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 683 bis.

Of the Burmese Pied Pastor, or Myna, Mr. Eugene Oates says that it is common and resident throughout the plains of Pegu.  Writing from Wau he says:—­

“On the 28th of April, having a spare morning, I took a very large number of nests and eggs.  The eggs were in various stages of incubation, but the majority were freshly laid.  On May 7th I took another nest with two eggs.  These were quite fresh.

“The nest is a huge cylindrical structure, about 18 inches long and a foot in diameter, composed of straw, leaves, and feathers.  It is placed at a height of from 10 to 25 feet from the ground, in a most conspicuous situation, generally at the end of a branch, which has been broken off and where a few leaves are struggling to come out.  A bamboo-bush is also a favourite site.  This Myna will, by preference, build near houses, but in no case in a house; it must have a tree.”

The eggs, which I owe to Mr. Oates, are, as might be expected, very similar indeed to those of our Common Pied Pastor, but they seem to average somewhat smaller.

They are moderately broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end, and in some cases more or less compressed there, and slightly pyriform.

The specimens sent are only moderately glossy.  In colour they vary from very pale bluish green to a moderately dark greenish blue, but the great majority are pale.

In length they vary from 1.0 to 1.1, and in breadth from 0.73 to 0.82; but the average of fifteen eggs is 1.04 by 0.77.

INDEX.