The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 70

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 095 to 125, and in breadth from 075 to 09; but the average of one hundred eggs is 111 by 082 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 10 to 11, and in breadth from 073 to 082; but the average of fifteen eggs is 104 by 077.