THE KOEL AND ITS ALLIES 313 



all over ivith blotches. The eg^o^s of 

 Bou-katha-kao are a very pale hedge- 

 sparrow green -blue, some rather more 

 blue, varying but little in the range of 

 colour. The eggs of the Pied-Crested 

 Cuckoo are a good deal darker and 

 deeper blue, the intensity varying little 

 in different eggs, As to the eggs of the 

 Hawk-cuckoo, Stuart Baker says ^'I do 

 not think they can be discriminated with 

 any certainty from those of Coccystes 

 jacohimis, though they average larger 

 and perhaps average lighter." 



As to the question whether the colour 

 of the eggs of Cuckoos has any rela- 

 tion to the colour of the eo^scs of the hosts 

 selected, Stuart Baker gives an affirmative 

 answer. In his opinion our Cuckoos 

 which lay blue eggs — H. varius and C 

 jacobinus and also C micropte7^us, — almost 

 invariably deposit their eggs in the nests 

 of such birds as themselves lay blue 

 eggs. Of course there are exceptions but 

 these are few. 



