Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithulogij. 13 



just when they began to sit, deprived of tiieir eggs, straightway 

 laid a second set, neither so large nor so well-coloured as the first, 

 but still fertile eggs that were duly hatched. But for the re- 

 moval of the first set, these subsequent eggs would never have 

 been developed or laid. Now the theory has always been that 

 the contact of the sperm- and germ-cells causes the develop- 

 ment and fertilization of the latter. . In these cases no fresh 

 accession of sperm-cells was possible ; and hence it would seem 

 as if, in some birds, the female organs were able to store up 

 living sperm-cells, which are only applied to fertilize and deve- 

 lop ova in the event of some accident rendering it necessary, 

 but otherwise ultimately lose their vitality and pass away with- 

 out action. 



The nest of the King-Crow that we took was of the ordinary cha- 

 racter ; in fact, I have noticed scarcely any difference in the shape 

 or materials of all the numerous nests of this common bird that 

 I have yet seen. They are all composed of tiny twigs and the 

 scented roots of the cucus-grass, neatly and tightly woven toge- 

 ther, being exteriorly bound round with a good deal of cobweb. 

 The cavity is broad and shallow, the bottom of the nest thin, 

 and the sides rather thick and firm. In this case the cavity 

 was 4 inches in diameter and about 1'5 in depth, and it con- 

 tained three pure white glossless eggs, varying from 1 inch to 

 1'125 in length, and all '/S in width. In the very next tree, 

 however (a mango — and this is perhaps their favourite tree), was 

 another similar nest, containing four eggs, slightly glossy, with 

 a salmon-pink tinge throughout, and numerous well-marked, 

 brownish-red specks and spots, most numerous towards the 

 large end, looking vastly like Brobdignagian specimens of the 

 Rocket-bird's eggs. The variation in the eggs of this species is 

 remarkable : out of more than one hundred, nearly a third have 

 been pure white ; and between the dead glossless purely white 

 egg and a somewhat glossy warm pink-grounded one, with nu- 

 merous well-marked spots and specks of maroon-colour, dull 

 red, red-brown, or even dusky, every possible gradation is 

 found. Each set of eggs, however, seems to be invariably of the 

 same character, and we have never yet found a quite white and 

 a well-coloured and marked egg in the same nest. 



