"Common up in the wooded portions of the district. Breeding in April
and May."
Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, speaking of this Grackle in Travancore,
says:--"This bird lays one or two light blue eggs beautifully blotched
with purple in the holes of trees. It does not like heavy jungle,
but after a clearing has been felled and burnt it is sure to appear.
During the fine weather it is very abundant on the hills, descending
to the low country at the foot when the rains have fairly set in. The
nest scarcely deserves the name, being only a few dead leaves or some
powdered wood at the bottom of the hole, and there about the end of
March the egg or eggs are laid. The young birds, which can be taught
to speak and become very tame, are often taken by the natives, as they
can sell them in the low country. I have obtained on the following
dates eggs and young birds:--
"March 29th. One egg slightly set.
April 20th. Two young birds.
April 22nd. " "
April 25th. Two eggs slightly set.
May 2nd. One young bird.
"I also had three eggs, slightly set, brought me on May 21. They are
rather smaller and a deeper blue than the ones obtained before, being
1·25 x 1, 1·19 x ·95, 1·21 x ·97 inch. They were all out of the same
nest, so that the bird sometimes lays three eggs, though the usual
number is two."
Colonel Legge writes in the 'Birds of Ceylon':--"The Black Myna was
breeding in the Pasdun Korale on the occasion of a visit I made to
that part in August, but I did not procure its eggs."
Other eggs subsequently sent me by Mr. Bourdillon from Mynall, in
Southern Travancore, taken on the 9th and 13th April, 1875, are
precisely similar to those already described. The eggs that I have
measured have only varied from 1·22 to 1·37 in length, and from 0·86
to 0·9 in width.