THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS. 357 



the nest of Larvivora brunnea, which were placed in holes, one in a 

 rock and one in a bank. These holes were both so small that no cuckoo 

 could possibly have got in to lay the egg. so that those must have been 

 laid on the ground and then place;! by the parent-bird in the nest. 



Writing to me again after he had found oviduct eggs of canorus, 

 poliocephalus and saturatus Col. Rattray again shews that the blue eggs 

 can only have been those of micro pterus, and forwarded to me no less 

 than six eggs of this bird, all taken in 1903. These are all of the same 

 typ8 of the egg and were found on the 31st May and 5th of June. 



Again, in 1904, Col. Rattray writes me that his evidence is still of a 

 negative character. He adds, however, that at Murroe, where C. 

 micropterus is much the most common, he found most blue eggs ; in 

 Dangagali, where micropterus is rare and canorus is very common, he 

 found but one blue egg (of micropterus), but three of the reddish type 

 of egg of canorus. 



Col. Wilson has taken numerous eggs which all agree with those 

 taken above. 



I have records of eggs taken in the nests of Trochalopterum lineatum 

 (The Himalayan Streaked Laughing Thrush), T. simile (The Western 

 Variegated Laughing- Thrush) and Larvivor brunnea and, on a single 

 occasion only, from a nest of Suya crinigera (The Brown Hill- Warbler), 

 Tarsiger chrysoeus (The Golden Bush-Robin), and Niltava sundara. 



Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., has also given me a note on the eggs of this 

 bird, but his eggs do not seem to agree with those above noted, and I 

 fancy they will turn out to be Hierococcyx varius (the Common Hawk- 

 Cuckoo). He says : " I cannot be absolutely sure of my eggs of this 

 bird. I have only one taken by myself, which was found in hoavy forest 

 in the Kanara District on 4th April 1894 in a nest of Crateropus canorus 

 (the Jungle Babbler). The egg is clearly a cuckoo's, and the only 

 cuckoo I heard or saw within a dozen of miles was this bird, and it 

 was not uncommon as one would hear three or four in a morning's 

 stroll." 



'• It is a deep blue (not in the least like the pale blue of C, jacobinus 

 (The Pied Crested Cuckoo), but neither so large nor dark-blue as II. 

 varius which I have never heard in the neighbourhood. C. jacolmus 

 does not occur in Khandesb, except as a passing straggler. I have three 

 other similar eggs. Two are from the Barnes' collection — one taken on 

 1.5th May 1895 without locality, sent to him by Mr. Murray, and one 



