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The Asiatic Mynah in Los Angeles, California

Loye Miller

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In the present issue of the Condor, Mr. George Willett reports the sighting by Dr. Hildegarde Howard Wylde and himself of the Common Mynah (Acridotheres tristis) in Los Angeles. I was able to call at the locality on the following day in company with Agricultural Commissioner H. J. Ryan, and, by permission of the Police Commission, to secure a specimen of the species, collected by Deputy Neville. This specimen is now no. 56175 of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and proves Mr. Willett's diagnosis to be correct.

Commissioner Ryan has devoted great energy to the matter and states that six individuals have thus far been collected and that all reports of other colonies are being followed up with energy. The appeal to the Agricultural Commissioner was made upon the basis of my own three years’ contact with the Mynah as naturalized in Hawaii and of the accounts of Dr. Raymond B. Cowles who has had long experience with the species as introduced into South Africa. In both areas the bird is looked upon as a most undesirable alien.

In Hawaii the following charges are laid against him:

Direct attack upon small fruits.

Dispersal of seeds of fruiting shrubs that rendered useless large areas of grazing lands.

Invasion of forest areas to the detriment of native species (though probably these species were doomed anyway).

Obnoxious habits about cities and home grounds.

Add to these charges the possibility of introducing parasites or disease-producing organisms and the danger seems too great to be justified by the pleasure (?) of a new addition to the list of our bird acquaintances.

University of California at Los Angeles, September 8, 1930

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