392 cuculidjE. 



pale blue. I believe that this bird keeps some kind of watch over 

 its eggs, as a pair have sometimes seated themselves uear me 

 uttering a harsh, grating, whistling scream very unlike their usual 

 magpie-like chatter, and I afterwards found a young Cucl^oo in 

 company with a flock of Thrushes that w ere constantly to be found 

 in that bamboo clump." 



Mr. J. Darling, Jim., says: — " Sliot a hen at Kaukarit in 

 Tenasserim, with a f idly founed unshelled egg in the oviduct. Xo 

 nest was to be seen anywhere about." 



Eudynamis honorata (Linn.). The Indian C'nel. 



Eudynamys orientalis {Linn.), Jenl. B. Ind. i, p. 342. 



Eudynamys honorata {Linn.), Iliimo, Iiuu;/h Draft K. c^- E. no. :^14. 



The great majority of the Coels lay in June ; but I have obtained 

 their eggs both in May and July. With one single exception, 

 when I obtained an egg from the nest of Gorvus viacrorhyncJui.'^, 

 every one of the tifty odd eggs that I have taken or received at 

 different times have been found in nests of Corvus splendens. 



Mr. Blyth recorded the following remarks in regard to the eggs 

 of this species :—" The female appears to deposit her eggs inva- 

 riably in the nests of the true Corvi, and so abundantly that we have 

 known five or six Coels' eggs to be brought in together by a person 

 who had been destroying Crows' nests, each taken from a different 

 one. The egg is certainly so often found alone that there can be 

 little doubt that the Coel destroys the eggs of the Crow at the 

 time her own is deposited ; but it is doubtful whether the young 

 Coel is endowed with the instiiict of ejecting any companions it 

 may have, and it would seem that it has not that propensity ; but 

 the fact remains to be systematically observed. Mr. Trith informs 

 us that h(^ has never found more than one Coel's egg in a nest, and 

 in his long experience has only met with it in those of the two 

 Indian Crows." 



My experience differs in some important particulars from Mr. 

 Blytia's. In the first place, I deny that the Coel's eggs ai-e gener- 

 ally found alone ; in thirty cases of w hich I have notes there is no 

 single instance of the egg being found alone. It is not the eggs 

 that are destroyed, but the young Crows that are got rid of, pro- 

 bably by the young Cuckoo ; I have found the latter in a nest with 

 three young Crows, all freshly hatched, and a week later have 

 found the young Crows " missing " and the young Cuckoo thri\ing. 

 In the next place, I have i-epeatedly found tuo Coel's eggs in 

 one nest. 



Mr. Brooks remarks : — " Eudi/naniix honoratK lays its eggs in 

 the nest of the counnon Crow, Corvm .■^ph'ndens. I have found tuo 

 eggs in tlie same nest. They are one-third smaller than the Crow's 

 eggs, moi'e oval, of an oil-green ground-colour, with bj'own spots 

 thickly marked over the egg and more numerous at the large end."' 

 ]Mr. AV, Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding 

 of this bird in Monghyr : — " Lays in the third week of June. Eggs, 

 one only ; shape, ovato-jiyriform ; size, 1 '2 inch by 0*9 inch ; colour, 



