THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOO*. 863 



They are not the eggs of any Cuculus, Coccystes, Cacomantis or 

 Penthocery.c which we know, and they are too large for Chrysococcyw. 

 They are not nisicolor or varius amongst the Hawk-Cuckoos, whose eggs 

 not only do not agree in colour, which would not perhaps matter, but they 

 disagree totally in shape, grain and texture. In shape, texture and grain 

 they, on the other hand, do agree with Rattray's eggs of H. sparverioides. 



In 1894 I took one of these eggs from the nest of a Pellomeum 

 ignotum (The Assam Babbler), and shot a female //. sparverioides near 

 the nest. This egg is described in this Journal (X, p. 367), but knowing 

 as much of cuckoos' eggs as we now do, I certainly should not have said 

 they were the same type as the eggs of nisicolor which are elliptical. 

 Since then as long as I was in North Cachar I continued yearly to 

 obtain a few of these same eggs, and now in Lakimpur Dr. Coltart and 

 I get a considerable number, mostly brought in by Nagas who get them 

 in the hills beyond British territory. 



The very large majority of our eggs, I should think three out of four 

 are found in the nests of Arachnothera magna (The Larger Streaked 

 Spider-hunter), and I have myself taken nests of this bird containing 

 both cuckoos' eggs and the eggs of the foster-parents. 



In June, 1896, I was marching over the Ninglo Peak, close on 6,000 

 feet, when I observed a Large Hawk- Cuckoo skulking about in some 

 scrub- jungle with stunted wild plantain trees growing in amongst the 

 other stuff. I shot the bird which proved to be a female, and afterwards 

 found within a few yards a nest of A. magna with supposed egg of this 

 bird and one of the owner. 



Again the same vear and near the same Peak some Nagas found a 

 nest of A. magna containing an egg of tho parents and two eggs of a 

 cuckoo, and they said that their attention had been drawn to the nest by 

 the way a pair of spider hunters were attacking a Hawk-Cuckoo skulk- 

 ing about in some brushwood under the plantain tree to which the 

 nest was attached. 



Both Dr. Coltart and myself have repeatedly taken or had brought to 

 us, two eggs in one nest. 



I have either taken myself, or had brought to me, eggs in the nests of 

 Alcippe nepalens/s (The Nepal Babbler) (1), Niliava macgrigorice (The 

 Small Niltava) (1), Arachnothera magna (12 about), Cyornis ruhe- 

 culoides (The Blue-throated Flycatcher) (1), Drymochares nepalensis 

 (The Nepal Short-wing) (3), Pellomeum ignotum (The Assam Babbler) 



14 



