FOR NORTHERN INDIA 126 



not fleshy. The neck of the crow nestling is 

 long and the head hangs down, whereas the 

 koel's neck is short and the bird carries its 

 head huddled in its shoulders. Crows nest 

 high up in trees, these facts are therefore 

 best observed by sending up an expert climber 

 with a tin half-full of sawdust to which a long 

 string is attached. The climber lets down the 

 eggs or nestlings in the tin and the observer 

 can examine them in comfort on terra firma. 

 The parent crows do not appear to notice 

 how unlike the young koels are to their own 

 nestlings, for they feed them most assiduously 

 and make a great uproar when the koels are 

 taken from the nest. Baby crows are noisy 

 creatures ; koels are quiet and timid at first, 

 but become noisier as they grow older. 



The feathers of crow nestlings are black in 

 each sex. Young koels fall into three classes : 

 those of which the feathers are all black, 

 those of which a few feathers have white or 

 reddish tips, those which are speckled black 

 and white all over because each feather has 

 a white tip. The two former appear to be 

 young cocks and the last to be hens. Baby 

 koels, in addition to hatching out before their 

 foster-brethren, develop more quickly, so that 



