COBTCS. 7 



generally very high up in the tree. I do not remember ever 

 seeing more than one nest on a tree at a time, so that they differ 

 very much from the Rook in that respect. They lay four eggs of 

 a bluish green, with dusky blotches and spots, and nothing can 

 exceed the care and attention they bestow on their young. Even 

 when the latter are able to leave their nests and take long flights, 

 the parent birds will accompany them as if to prevent their getting 

 into mischief. The nests are found in April and May." 



Mr. J. Darling, jun., writes from the Nilghiris : "1 have found 

 the nest of this Crow pretty nearly all over the Nilghiris. The 

 usual number of eggs laid is four, but on one occasion, near the 

 Quinine Laboratory in the Government Gardens at Ooty, I pro- 

 cured six from one nest. The breeding-season is from March to 

 May, but I have taken eggs as early as the 12th February." 



From Ceylon, we hear from Mr. Layard that " about the villages 

 the Carriou-Crow builds its nest in the cocoanut-trees. In the 

 jungles it selects a tall tree, amid the upper branches of which it 

 fixes a framework of sticks, and on this constructs a nest of twigs 

 and grasses. The eggs, from three to five, are usually of a dull 

 greenish- brown colour, thickly mottled with brown, these markings 

 being most prevalent at the small end. They are usually laid in 

 January and February." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal it is 

 " common and a permanent resident. Occasionally found in the 

 clumps oE jungle that are found about the country, which the next 

 species never affects. Breeds in the cold weather. I had noticed 

 a pair building on a Casuarina tree in my garden, about 50 feet 

 off the ground, and on the 18th December, 1877, I took two per- 

 fectly fresh eggs from it ; and again on the 9th January, 1878, I 

 found two callow young in this same nest, the birds never having 

 deserted it. The lining used for this nest was principally jute- 

 fibre any tree is selected to build on ; the nests are placed from 

 15 to 50 feet off the ground. Some nests are very well concealed, 

 whereas others are quite exposed. On the loth January I found 

 a nest about 15 feet up a small kudum tree, standing in a large 

 plain, and which had a lining of hair from the tail-tufts of cows. 

 There was one fresh egg, and a week later I got another fresh egg 

 from this very nest. From two to four eggs are in each nest." 



Mr. Oates writes from Pegu : " These birds all begin to build 

 about the same time, and I have taken numerous nests at the 

 end of January. At the end of February most nests contain 

 young birds." 



Mr. "W. Theobald gives the following notes on the nidification 

 of this bird in Tenasserim and near Deoghur : 



" Lays in the third week of February and fourth week of March : 

 eggs ovato-pyriform ; size 1*66 by 1*15; colour, dull sap-green 

 much blotched with brown ; nest carefully placed in tall trees." 



The eggs, though smaller, closely resemble, as might have been 

 expected, those of the Eaven, but they are, I think, typically some- 

 what broader and shorter. Almost every variety, as far as colora- 



