INDIAN CUCKOOS 221 



koel. Here would be a golden opportunity for them ; 

 they would experience no difficulty in catching or de- 

 stroying a newly fledged cuckoo. 



Some authorities have thought that during the earlier 

 part of their life young koels retain the crow smell, and 

 so are let alone by the strange crows they encounter. 

 I do not think that this is the explanation. 



Smell does not appear to play an important part in 

 the life of a bird. Of all the avine senses that of smell 

 seems to be the least well developed. 



So far as my observation goes, it is the male koel 

 which is chiefly attacked by the crows. I do not re- 

 member ever having seen a female chased ; she is so 

 different from the cock bird in appearance that it is 

 possible that the crows do not know that she is a koel. 

 Now young koels of both sexes resemble the female 

 in plumage, and I think that it is to this fact that they 

 owe their immunity from attack. 



Cuckoos are, indeed, wonderful creatures. They are 

 not content with victimizing poor helpless little birds ; 

 they select as their victims and dupes the boldest and 

 bravest of the feathered race. The brain-fever bird 

 victimizes the social and alert babblers. The koel 

 chooses crows, of all birds. 



Another cuckoo, the Drongo-cuckoo {Surniculus 

 lugubris), goes one better. It selects as its dupe the 

 valiant and ever-vigilant king-crow. As we have 

 already seen, the king-crow is, during the nesting 

 season, a little fury. It will attack any bird or beast 

 that ventures near its nest. It takes no account of 

 size. The cuckoo that desired to victimize it might be 



