THE KOEL AND ITS ALLIES 295 



keeps the crows engaged just sufficiently 

 to allow the female to finish its job. 

 When it thinks that the chase has been 

 sufficiently long, it swerves to one side 

 and takes cover in a thick foliage, whence 

 it quietly escapes. The baffled crows 

 return to their nests to hatch to life the 

 eggs of their arch-enemy. Sometimes it 

 happens that the crowds return before 

 the female Koel has finished its task 

 and it is then that the crows get their 

 opportunity for wreaking their vengeance. 

 The female Koel is not as swift a flier 

 as its husband, and has occasionally to 

 pay with its life for its foul deed. CoL 

 Butler once saved a fugitive female Koel 

 from a pair of crows. Other observers also 

 have recorded instances of similar catas- 

 trophies. 



When the male Koel has enticed away 

 the crows, the female bird, while depositing 

 her own eggs, destroys the eggs of the nest- 

 owners. Blyth held to this view, while 

 Oates denied that the Koel did anything 



