Mr. Gates remarks of this Myna in Pegu:--"This bird does not appear to
lay till about the 15th April. I have taken the eggs, and I have seen
numerous nests with young ones of various ages in the middle of May.
They breed by preference in holes of trees and occasionally in the
high roofs of monastic buildings."

The eggs of this species, which I have from Mussoorie, Dacca, Kumaon,
and the Nilgiris, approximate closer to those of _Acridotheres
tristis_ than to those of _A. ginginianus_. They are rather long
ovals, somewhat pointed usually, but often pyriform. They are perhaps,
as a rule, somewhat paler than those of either of the above-named
species, and are of the usual spotless glossy type, varying in colour
from that of skimmed milk to pale blue or greenish, blue. Typically,
I think, they are proportionally more elongated and attenuated than
those either of _A. tristis, A. ginginianus_ or _S. contra_.

In length they vary from 1.03 to 1.31, and in breadth from 0.78 to
0.9; but the average of forty eggs is 1.19 by 0.83.

555. Sturnopastor contra (Linn.). _The Pied Myna_.

Sturnopastor contra (_Linn_.), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 323; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 683.

The Pied Pastor, or Myna, breeds throughout the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh, Bengal, the eastern portions of the Punjab and
Rajpootana (it does not extend to the western portions nor to Sindh),
the Central Provinces, and Central India.

The breeding-season lasts from May to August, but the majority of the
birds lay in June and July. It builds in trees, at heights of from
10 to 30 feet, usually towards the extremities of lateral branches,
constructing a huge clumsy nest of straw, grass, twigs, roots, and
rags, with a deep cavity lined as a rule with quantities of feathers.
Occasionally, but very rarely, it places its nest in some huge hole in
a great arm of a mango-tree. I have seen many hundreds of their nests,
but only two thus situated.

As a rule these birds do not build in society, but at times,
especially in Lower Bengal, I have seen a dozen of their nests on a
single tree.

The nest is usually a shapeless mass of rubbish loosely put together,
rough and ragged.

A note I recorded on one taken at Bareilly will illustrate
sufficiently the kind of thing:--

"At the extremity of one of the branches of these same mango-trees, a
small truss of hay, as it seemed, at once caught every eye. This was
one of the huge nests of the Pied Past