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.

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.

From Hansie Mr. W. Blewitt writes:--"During June and the early part
of July I found numerous nests of this species in holes of shishum,
peepul, neem, and siriss trees situated on the bank of the Hissar
Canal. The holes where at heights of from 12 to 15 feet from the
ground, and in each a few leaves or feathers w