The black-headed or brahminy myna (Temenuchus pagodarum) usually begins nesting operations about a month later than the bank-myna; its eggs are most often taken in June.  The nest, which is an untidy, odoriferous collection of rubbish, is always in a cavity.  In Northern India a hole in a tree is usually selected; in the South buildings are largely patronised.  Some years ago the writer observed a pair of these birds building a nest in a hole made in the masonry for the passage of the lightning conductor of the Church in Fort St. George, Madras.

May marks the commencement of the breeding season of the pied starlings (Sturnopastor contra).  In this month they begin to give vent with vigour to their cheerful call, which is so pleasing as almost to merit the name of song.

Throughout the rains they continue to make a joyful noise.  Not that they are silent at other seasons; they call throughout the year, but, except at the breeding period, their voices are comparatively subdued.

The nest is a bulky, untidy mass of straw, roots, twigs, rags, feathers and such-like things.  It is placed fairly low down in a tree.

Many of these nests are to be seen in May, but the breeding season is at its height in June and July.

The grey hornbills (Lophoceros birostris) are now seeking out holes in which to deposit their eggs.  The hen, after having laid the first egg, does not emerge from the nest till the young are ready to fly.  During the whole of this period she is kept a close prisoner, the aperture to the nest cavity having been closed by her mate and herself with their own droppings, a small chink alone being left through which she is able to insert her beak in order to receive the food brought to her by the cock.

Mr. A. J. Currie gives an interesting account of a grey hornbill’s nest he discovered at Lahore in 1910.  About the middle of April he noticed a pair of paroquets nesting in a hole in a tree.  On April 28th he saw a hornbill inspecting the hole, regardless of the noisy protests of the paroquets.  On the 30th he observed that the hole had become smaller, and suspected that the hornbills had taken possession.  On May 1st all that was left of the hole was a slit.  On May 6th Mr. Currie watched the cock hornbill feeding the hen.  First the male bird came carrying a fig in his bill.  Seeing human beings near the nest, he did not give the fig to the hen but swallowed it and flew off.  Presently the cock reappeared with a fig which he put into the slit in the plastering; after he had parted with the fig he began to feed the hen by bringing up food from his crop.  During the process the beak of the hen did not appear at the slit.

On May 7th Mr. Currie opened out the nest.  The hole was sixteen feet from the ground and the orifice had a diameter of three inches; all of this except a slit, broadest at the lower part, was filled up by plaster.  This plaster was odourless and contained embedded in it a number of fig seeds.