$4 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



receive parental attention, As the said egg is very like a 

 crow's there is no great wonder that it should be hatched 

 as if it were one ; nor can a crow be expected to notice 

 that the changeling's toes are in pairs, not three in front 

 and one behind, as crows' toes should properly be. 

 But one would expect that when the young bird is fledged 

 its appearance would provoke suspicion. It is not so big 

 as a young crow, and though it is sometimes as black as 

 its real or foster-father it generally betrays a certain speck- 

 ling, more or less according to its sex, of the plumage of its 

 maternal parent ; though even the lightest coloured young 

 hen Koel, by her dark bill and eyes, is easily distinguished 

 from her mother, whose ruby eyes and jade-green bill are 

 like those of her husband. Probably, by the time that the 

 hen crow awakes to the fact that she has been " sold 

 again," maternal affection that powerful force which 

 makes cats foster rats, and wolves babies has asserted 

 itself to such an extent that she cannot bid the intruder 

 begone. 



It is sometimes stated, however, that the real parent 

 hangs about, so as to be ready in such a contingency, and 

 certainly there seems to be some feeling of propriety among 

 Koels, in spite of their disreputable family connexions. I 

 have seen the male take the trouble to feed the female with 

 berries plucked off the tree on which both were sitting ; 

 and I am not aware that even so small an act of courtesy 

 as this is has been recorded of the home cuckoo. It is 

 possible therefore that care of offspring as well as atten- 

 tion to the conjugal tie is a little more in evidence in the 

 Indian bird. 



