6 Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 



will not lay therein. Only yesterday I examined it; it was 

 empty." 



Notwithstanding this assurance, I had a boy sent up, when 

 the nest proved to contain four eggs. " Very strange/' I re- 

 marked ; " empty yesterday, four eggs to-day. How is that V 

 " Cherisher of the needy ! it is customary amongst Crows, when 

 they perceive that the season has nearly passed, and that as yet 

 they have laid no eggs, to invite on a certain day their relatives 

 to lay eggs for them. Without doubt such has been the case 

 to-day, and all these four eggs have been this morning laid by 

 the relatives of that barren, God-forgotten black one, that has 

 just flown off the nest as if the eggs were her own. Indeed, 

 before the sun of your honour^s glory lit up the world this 

 morning, I heard a great cawing in this tree, and, said I to my- 

 self, let us see what this thing may mean " 



It would not do for one of Her Majesty's judges to be seen 

 kicking one of Her Majesty's subjects about his premises ; be- 

 sides, I am a patient man, or else Well, here is an ornitho- 

 logical fact quite new to the world of science ; and if my Meer 

 Shikaree's authority is thought good, any one is welcome to 

 make use of it. 



The eggs of Corvus splendens are of normal appearance. In 

 some the ground is a very pale pure bluish -green, in others 

 it is dingier and greener. All are blotched, speckled, and 

 streaked more or less with somewhat pale sepia markings ; but 

 in some the spots and specks are a darker brown, and, as a rule* 

 well defined, and there is very little streaking ; while in others 

 the brown is pale and muddy, the markings ill-defined, and 

 nearly the whole surface of the egg is freckled over with smudgy 

 streaks. Sometimes the markings are most numerous at the 

 large end, sometimes at the small ; no two eggs are exactly 

 alike, and yet they have so strong a family resemblance that 

 there is no possibility of mistaking them. They ai'e a good deal 

 smaller than those of the common black Crow of the plains of 

 India (C culminatus) , which lays earlier in the year, and measure 

 from ri87 to 1-437 in. in length, and from 1 inch to 1-093 

 in breadth. The Crow whose eggs we had just taken, kept fly- 

 ing about uneasily from tree to tree, when suddenly out darted 



