52 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



by wrenching off twigs and sprays in the most 

 recklessly destructive fashion. In the neighbour- 

 hood of Calcutta they begin to build in the latter 

 part of January, and thereafter, until the end of 

 May, the work goes on more or less continuously. 

 In some seasons nesting is over much sooner than 

 in others, as its duration is, to a great extent, 

 determined by the nature of the weather. Should 

 their first nests be plundered by any predaceous 

 animal, destroyed by human agency, or wrecked by 

 storm, they at once begin to build anew, and, 

 therefore, in seasons in which violent storms abound, 

 nesting necessarily goes on much longer than when 

 only a few occur. When a catastrophe does over- 

 take a nest containing young birds in an advanced 

 stage of development, but not yet fit to do with- 

 out a habitation, and should any of them survive, 

 their parents sometimes show great intelligence in 

 providing for them. In April 1883 a crow's nest 

 was pulled down in a garden in the European 

 quarter of Calcutta. One of the two young birds 

 that were in it fell to the ground and was killed, 

 but the other lodged among the branches in its 

 descent without serious injury. Great excitement 

 of course prevailed among all the crows of the 

 neighbourhood, and then the parents proceeded to 

 make a new platform of sticks beneath and around 

 their surviving offspring. 



