INDIAN CUCKOOS 219 



bird, which, when seen during flight, looks like a 

 slenderly built crow with an extra long tail. The 

 female is a brown bird spotted with white. This species 

 makes the crow do its nursemaid's work for it. 



Needless to say, the Indian grey-necked crow is not 

 the bird to be bluffed out of its nest by an ass in a 

 lion's skin in the shape of a hawk-like cuckoo. If the 

 hen-cuckoo went up threateningly to a crow and tried 

 to enter the nest, the crow would probably remark, 

 " Very sorry, ma'am, full inside, try outside ! " It there- 

 fore becomes necessary for the koels to resort to artifice. 

 The female, who is inconspicuously coloured, remains 

 in the background, while the showy black cock bird 

 swaggers up to the crow's nest upon which the pair 

 have designs. As a rule, the mere sight of an adult 

 male koel drives a crow almost mad with fury. 



Nothing is commoner in India than the sight of a 

 couple of crows chasing a koel. Indeed, the cuckoos 

 are most unpopular with birds of all classes. They are 

 the outlaws of the bird world ; so they usually keep well 

 to cover. When they do venture into the open they 

 usually make a wild dash, like that of a boy from one 

 " base " to another when playing at rounders. 



Upon this occasion, however, the koel turns his un- 

 popularity to account. If the sight of him is insufficient 

 to provoke the crows at the nest to give chase, he begins 

 to insult them. " Call that thing a nest ? " he says 

 mockingly. " Why, if I could not raise up a more re- 

 spectable structure than that I would lay my eggs in 

 some other bird's nest ! " The crows, of course, will 

 not tolerate this kind of thing. They give chase. 



