768 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XVII. 



On the 18th the nest contained the koel's egg and only one of the crow ; that 

 of the 16th had disappeared. It is probable that the small boy and his 

 friends removed it ! I then told my climber to twine branches round the 

 stem of each tree he climbed, so that it would be impossible for any one to 

 swarm up it without leaving traces. This he did. 



On visiting the nest on the 19th it was evident that some one had been up 

 the tree, and we found the nest empty. That was the end of that particular 

 experiment. 



Before leaving the account of this nest I should like to say a few words 

 regarding the incident of the cuckoo laying its egg in the nest, which my 

 climber declares he witnessed. I was most anxious to see the koel lay its egg 

 and spent much time in watching likely nests, but never saw it do so. I,. 

 however, did see what was probably an attempt on the part of a koel to deposit 

 an egg. A hen koel was sitting in a tree quite close to a crow's nest that 

 contained one egg. Presently the cock koel came up, and made a noise ; the 

 owners of the nest " went for " him and he flew off followed by them. But the 

 hen koel continued to sit upon her branch, her body motionless, and moved her 

 head as if looking anxiously round. After the koel had been sitting thus for 

 about ten minutes one of the crows returned to the nest and looked into it. 

 It then flew away again. The hen koel now flew to the tree in which the nest 

 was situated and perched on a branch a few inches above it. I believe she 

 was about to enter it, when suddenly a crow appeared and attacked the koel. 

 She flew off followed by the crow. I waited for a quarter of an hour, but 

 neither bird returned. I should add that no koel's egg was subsequently found 

 in that nest. On another occasion I saw a cock koel come into a tree in which 

 there was a crow's nest containing three crow's and one koel's egg. He began 

 to cry Jail, Tcuil, and the crow " went for " him but did not follow when he 

 flew off. 



I am of opinion that the koel experiences considerable difficulty in getting 

 her egg into the crow's nest. Sometimes the crows refuse to be drawn off 

 by the cock koel, at others the hen is not quite ready to lay when the crows 

 are enticed away ; the crows must frequently return and surprise the hen koel 

 on the nest before she has had time to complete the operation. 



Nest Number VI. 



On June 14 th my climber reported one crow's egg in the nest. 



On the 15th I inspected the nest and found one crow's egg plus one koel's. 

 On the 16th there was in the nest a second crow's egg, that is to say, in all two 

 crow's eggs and one koel's. 



On the 17th the crow's egg of the previous day had disappeared, so that 

 the nest now contained one crow's egg and one koel's. I am inclined to think 

 that this egg was removed by a koel. It is true that a cultivator was working 

 at a well near by with his oxen and saw my man ascend the tree, but it was a 

 difficult one to climb and it is unlikely that the old man would have risked 

 breaking his limbs for the sake of destroying an egg. On the 17th an 



