Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 327; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 686.

The Jungle Myna eschews the open cultivated plains of Upper, Central,
and Western India. It breeds throughout the Himalayas, at any
elevations up to 7000 feet, where the hills are not bare, and in some
places in the sub-Himalayan jungles. It breeds in the plains country
of Lower Bengal, and in both plains and hills of Assam, Cachar, and
Burma, and also in great numbers in the Nilgiris and all the wooded
ranges and hilly country of the Peninsula. The breeding-season lasts
from March to July, but the majority lay everywhere, I think, in
April, except in the extreme north-west, where they are later.

Normally, they build in holes of trees, and are more or less social in
their nidification. As a rule, if you find one nest you will find a
dozen within a radius of 100 yards, and not unfrequently within one of
ten yards. But, besides trees, they readily build in holes in temples
and old ruins, in any large stone wall, in the thatch of old houses,
and even in their chimneys.

The nest is a mere lining for the hole they select, and varies in size
and shape with this latter; fine twigs, dry grass, and feathers are
the materials most commonly used, the feathers being chiefly gathered
together to form a bed for the eggs; but moss, moss and fern roots,
flocks of wool, lichen, and down may often be found in greater or less
quantities intermingled with the grass and straw which forms the main
body, or with the feathers that constitute the lining, of the nest. I
have never found more than five eggs, but Miss Cockburn says that they
sometimes lay six.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall writes:--"This Myna, which takes
the place of _A. tristis_ in the higher hills, breeds always in holes
in trees. We found five or six nests in June and early in July."

They breed near Solan, below Kussowlee, and close to Jerripani,
Captain Hutton's place below Mussoorie, in both which localities I
have taken their nests myself.

Captain Hutton remarks:--"This is a summer visitant in the hills, and
is common at Mussoorie during that season; but it does not appear to
visit Simla, although it is to be found in some of the valleys below
it to the south. It breeds at Mussoorie in May and June, selecting
holes in the forest trees, generally large oaks, which it lines with
dry grass and feathers. The eggs are from three to five, of a pale
greenish blue, shape ordinary, but somewhat incli