COCCTSTES. 391 



sometimes, I am inclined to believe, lays abnormally small eggs of 

 this shape ; so tliat the only specimens that I really fully rely on are 

 those which have been taken out of the oviduct of the female : 

 these are very round ovals, recalling in shape the eggs of the Bee- 

 eaters, very glossy and of a delicate full-sky blue. Those obtained 

 from the nests to and from w hich the bird had been watched are 

 exactly similar, but of a somewhat darker and deeper hue. 



The eggs vary in length from 0*9 to 0-9S inch, and in breadth 

 from 0-72 toU-Si* inch : but the average oF a series is U-04 by "-T;) 

 inch. 



Coccystes coromandus (^Linn.). The Cnshd Red-vlnrjed Cud-oo. 



Coccystes coromandus {Linn.), Jenl. B. Ind. i, p. 341 ; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. :21:J. 



An egg that I possess of the Crested Ked- winged Cuckoo was 

 obtained for me by ray friend, the late Mr. Irwin, in Tipperah. 

 It was extracted from the oviduct of the female. In shape it is a 

 very broad oval, and in texture fine and glossy. In colour it is a 

 moderately pale, somewhat greenish blue, uniform throughout, 

 without any specks or spots ; although considerably larger, it in 

 other respects closely resembles some eggs of C.jacobimis. 



It measures 1-05 by 0-92 inch. 



Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest in which he says that four fresh 

 eo-o-s of this species were found on the 20th May, at Namtchu in 

 Native Sikhim. It was placed on the branches of a very large tree 

 at a height of tweuty-tive feet from the ground. A fifth egg was 

 extracted from the oviduct of the parent-bird. All the five eggs 

 are precisely alike, and hke others that I have myself extracted 

 from the oviduct of this species. I cannot, however, for a 

 moment believe that the nest really belonged to this Cuckoo. She 

 was shot on it no doubt when about to lay the fifth egg, having 

 selected the nest of some bird, probably some Babbler, whose eggs 

 closely resemble her own. The nest is a moderately deep cup 

 four inches in diameter, composed externaUy of dry leaves loosely 

 bound together with coarse grass, and lined with fine wire-like 

 twigs, fiower-stems, as I guess, of some herbaceous plant. The 

 nest is very similar to some I have seen of GarruJax nionilif/er, and 

 again of 6r. leucohphus. 



Captain Teilden remarks : — " This bird is the commonest 

 Cuckoo at Thayetmyo ; in the thicker parts of the jungle every 

 bamboo-filled valley contains one or more pairs. They arrive in 

 the beginning of the rains, and the young birds do not leave till 

 October. They lay in the nest of the Quaker Thrushes I beheve, 

 as I have frequently shot the young bird from the middle of a 

 brood of young Quaker Thrushes, and, as far as I could see from 

 the thickness of the jungle, the old Thrushes were feeding the 

 youiig Cuckoo. An egg, taken from the nest of a Quaker Thrush, 

 that I beheve to have belonged to this bird was very round and a 



