BIRDS THAT ARE BOARDED OUT 57 



the nest, but that they all grow up together ; 

 and also, that though the koel's egg is very like 

 a small crow's egg, this cannot matter much, 

 for a crow will even sit on a fowl's egg and 

 hatch it ! It is rather a pity that the young 

 crows are not turned out, for most people 

 who have been in India will agree that there 

 are a great many more crows there than are 

 wanted. Every garden is full of them, even 

 in towns ; and as its foster-parents are so 

 common, the koel is common too, and is much 

 more often seen than our cuckoo here. In 

 fact, it is commoner than many people wish, 

 for it is a terribly noisy bird, and sometimes 

 insists on keeping up its call at night, when, 

 in the terrible Indian heat, it is hard to get 

 to sleep, and even the nightingale would be. 

 put down as a nuisance ! 



The call is really very pretty, though not 

 at all like our cuckoo's ; it is something like 

 " kuk-kuk-ko-eel, ko-eel, ko-eel," running up 

 the scale ; the natives think the koel is one of 

 the sweetest of singing-birds, and keep it for 

 a pet as often as our people keep thrushes and 

 blackbirds. Because of this it is easier to 

 get alive than most foreign cuckoos, and is 



