220 BOMBAY DUCKS 



Now, in a race between a koel and a crow the latter 

 has about as much chance of winning as a cart-horse 

 would have if pittied against a Derby winner. The 

 koel, however, is content to keep just ahead of his 

 corvine pursuers ; thus he lures them from the nest, 

 and meanwhile his mate is placing her egg in it. When 

 the male bird hears his wife's voice he knows that the 

 fell deed is done, and so puts on a spurt and leaves his 

 pursuers far behind, screaming as he disappears from 

 view : " Get back to the nest, you blockheads, the eggs 

 are getting cold ! " 



The crows realize that this is really their most 

 sensible course. On their return they fail to recognize 

 the prank which has been played upon them ; and so 

 hatch out the strange egg along with their own. But 

 the curious thing is that when the young koel is 

 hatched, its foster-parents do not wring its neck, but 

 tend it most carefully. 



Birds, when sitting on their eggs or looking after 

 their young, are mere automatons, creatures of instinct. 

 At this period they seem to cast intelligence to the 

 wind, and to obey implicitly the promptings of instinct. 

 Instinct teaches a bird to feed all the young in its 

 nest without questioning their origin. We may thus 

 account for the care which the crow parents lavish upon 

 their koel foster-children. 



But we have yet to overcome a further difficulty. 

 How is it that when the young koels first begin to fend 

 for themselves they are not set upon by the strange 

 crows of the neighbourhood and devoured ? A crow, 

 as a rule, never loses an opportunity of attacking a 



