The Heart of the Valley point for writing the novel. It was also based on the nature in the valley where he lived. The Heart of the Valley The Heart of the Valley is a novel by British author Nigel Hinton. It was first published in 1986 and was his first and to date only book written for adults. The story focuses on the nature of an English valley especially the dunnocks. In the winter a female dunnock left her territory to find food and came to the front garden of Brook Cottage where other birds were also feeding from the bird table. That evening
Common myna are regularly observed to usurp nests and hollows, destroy the eggs and kill the young of native bird species including seabirds and parrots. There is evidence that Mynas have killed small land mammals such as mice, squirrels and possums, but further research on these occurrences are under consideration. In Sanskrit literature, the common myna has a number of names, most are descriptive of the appearance or behaviour of the bird. In addition to "saarika", the names for the common myna include "kalahapriya", which means "one who is fond of arguments" referring to the quarrelsome nature of this bird; "chitranetra", meaning