In length they vary from 1.05 to 1.28, and in breadth from 0.8 to 0.95; but the average of ninety-seven eggs is 1.19 by 0.86.

550.  Acridotheres melanosternus, Legge. The Common Ceylon Myna.

Acridotheres melanosternus, Legge, Hume, cat. no. 684 bis.

Colonel Legge tells us, in his ‘Birds of Ceylon,’ that “this species breeds in Ceylon from February until May, nesting perhaps more in the month of March than in any other.  It builds in holes of trees, often choosing a cocoanut-palm which has been hollowed out by a Woodpecker, and in the cavity thus formed makes a nest of grass, fibres, and roots.  I once found a nest in the end of a hollow areca-palm which was the cross beam of a swing used by the children of the Orphan School, Bonavista, and the noise of whose play and mirth seemed to be viewed by the birds with the utmost unconcern.  The eggs are from three to five in number; they are broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end, and are uniform, unspotted, pale bluish or ethereal green.  They vary in length from 1.07 to 1.2 inch and in breadth from 0.85 to 0.92 inch.

“Layard styles the eggs ’light blue, much resembling those of the European Starling in shape, but rather darker in colour.’”

551.  Acridotheres ginginianus (Lath.). The Bank Myna.

Acridotheres ginginianus (Lath.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 326; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 685.

The Bank Myna breeds throughout the North-West Provinces and Oudh, Behar, and Central Bengal, the greater portion of the Central Provinces, and the Punjab and Sindh.  Adams says it does not occur in the Punjab; but, as Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall correctly pointed out to me years ago, and I have verified the facts, it breeds about Lahore and many other places, and in the high banks of the Beas, the Sutlej, the Jhelum, and the Indus, congregating in large numbers on these rivers just as it does on the Jumna or the Ganges.

It builds exclusively, so far as my experience goes, in earthen banks and cliffs, in holes which it excavates for itself, always, I think, in close proximity to water, and by preference in places overhanging or overlooking running water.

The breeding-season lasts from the middle of April to the middle of July, but I have found more eggs in May than in any other month.

Four is the usual number of the eggs; I have found five, but never more.  If Theobald got seven or eight, they belonged to two pairs; and the nests so run into each other that this is a mistake that might easily be made, even where coolies were digging into the bank before one.

There is really no variety in their nesting arrangements, and a note I recorded in regard to one colony that I robbed will, I think, sufficiently illustrate the subject.  All that can be said is that very commonly they nest low down in earthy cliffs, where it is next to impossible to explore thoroughly their workings, while in the instance referred to these were very accessible:—­