PARASITIC HABITS OF THE INDIAN KOEL. 767 



he flew to the tree in which the crow was sitting and called hull, Jcuil. The 

 sitting crow left the nest and ' went for ' him. He flew off, followed by the 

 crow. Immediately the hen koel flew to the crow's nest and laid an egg in 

 it. I am certain she laid an egg (although 1 did not again climb the tree), 

 because she had her mouth open and her whole body underwent contortions 

 as though she were trying to squeeze something out. After about a minute 

 she left the nest, carrying in her beak a crow's egg which she smashed. If 

 you go to the nest you will find in it a koel's egg instead of the crow's. I did 

 not climb up the tree to see, but came running to you, saliib." 



Ascertaining that the nest was only some three hundred yards from the 

 bungalow, I at once went to the tree and sent my climber up. In the nest he 

 found and lowered to me one crow's egg and one koel's egg ! 



It was therefore obvious that either the crow had returned and laid 

 another egg between the time when my climber saw only one and the time I 

 inspected the nest, or the man was not telling the truth when he said he saw 

 the koel fly off with an egg in her beak. I cross-examined him carefully and 

 he then admitted that he might have made a mistake about the egg being 

 in the koel's mouth, but he was quite positive about the rest of the story, 

 which I am inclined to believe, I had no pencil with me, so could not mark 

 the eggs. 



The next day (June 15th) I visited the nest and found only the koel's egg 

 in the nest ; that of the crow had disappeared. What had become of this? 

 No traces of it were to be seen on the ground. Either my climber had been 

 playing tricks, or the koel had returned and removed the egg, or some person 

 had climbed up the tree and taken the egg. The first alternative I dismissed 

 as most improbable, fori had promised the man a handsome reward if 

 the experiments turned out well ; he was a chaprassi in my office, which was 

 three miles away, and I had taken him in my dog-cart to office the previous 

 day, so that if he had removed the egg he must have done so in the afternoon 

 and have walked six miles to do so. I am inclined to think that the koel 

 returned and removed the egg. In other cases which I shall record it has 

 certainly done so. I believe that the koel tries to remove an egg at the time 

 that it deposits its own, but frequently it is not given time to do so ; when this 

 is the case it makes an attempt to return and do so subsequently. 



On the other hand, the tree was outside the compound, near a temple, and 

 some men had seen my man up the tree. But my subsequent experience 

 showed me that it is the small boys who are the trouble and not the grown-ups. 

 For these reasons I am of opinion that the koel removed that egg. 



On the 16th June the nest contained the koel's egg plus one crow's egg. On 

 the 17th it contained the koel's egg and two crow's eggs. While my man was 

 up in this tree a small boy had come out of the temple and stood watching me. 

 Thinking to make the best of a bad job I explained to him what I was doing 

 and showed him the difference between the egg of the crow and that of the 

 koel. He appeared interested. 



