770 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV1L 



Unfortunately the tree was in an exposed place, so that on the 26th we 

 noticed that the arrangement of branches, which, being taught by experience, 

 we now always made, had been disturbed, showing that some one had been up 

 the tree. The koel's egg and one of the crow's eggs had been taken. I only 

 mention this nest on account of the broken egg we saw lying on the ground, 

 which was probably the handiwork of the koel. 



Nest Number IV. 



On June 14th this contained one crow's egg, by the 15th a koel's egg had 

 been added. On the 16th the nest contained two crow's eggs and one koel's. 

 On the 17th there were three crow's eggs and one koel's egg in the nest. But as 

 the small boy whom I suspected of stealing the eggs in Nest Number "V had seen 

 my climber at this nest, I feared that it would only be a matter of time before 

 this was robbed and so seriously contemplated removing the koel's egg to a safer 

 nest. As, however, I had no proof of the guilt of the small boy in question and 

 did not want to disturb things if possible, I allowed the koel's egg to remain in 

 it. I inspected the nest daily from 19th to 21st June and always found the three 

 crow's eggs and the single koel's egg, so decided not to inspect daily until it 

 should be time for the eggs to hatch out, as I wanted to attract as little atten- 

 tion as possible. On the morning of the 28th the young koel was coming out 

 while the three crow's eggs were still unhatched. On the 29th the young koel 

 had hatched out while the three crow's eggs were unhatched, nor had they 

 hatched out on July 1st. 



But on visiting the nest on the evening of July 2nd I found that the \ouog 

 koel had disappeared and the crow's eggs that I had first seen on the 14th and 

 16th had hatched out, while the crow's egg of the 17th was still unhatched. 

 What I had feared had happened. The small boy had taken the young koel 

 and thus brought this experiment to an abrupt termination. However, it 

 shows that the young koel did not eject any of the crow's eggs although he 

 was in the nest over forty-eight hours with them. It further shows that the 

 koel's egg hatches out more quickly than that of the crow, and I may here say 

 that in all the nests I have examined where there are both crow's eggs and a 

 koel's egg the last has invariably been the first to hatch out. 



It will be noticed that in this case the parent koel did not destroy or remove 

 any of the three crow's eggs that I discovered and marked in the nest. But 

 three is a very small clutch for the crow, and although I found an egg on the 

 14th, and another on the 16th and a third on the 17th, J. found no new crow's 

 egg on the 15th, the date on which I discovered the koel's egg ; it is therefore 

 quite possible that an egg was laid by the crow on the 15th which wa g 

 ejected by the koel before I set eyes upon it. I may here say that in no one 

 of the nests inspected by me did I find that both a crow's egg and a koel's egg 

 had been added on the same day. 



Nest Number VIII. 



On June 17th I found one crow's egg in this nest, on the 18th a second, on 

 the 19th a third, and on the 20th a fourth. On visiting the nest on the 21st 



