PARASITIC HABITS OF THE INDIAN KOEL. 771 



I found only three crow's eggs in the nest, that which had appeared on the 

 17th was lying broken on the ground under the tree. There were no signs of 

 ■any one having been up the tree, which was in the compound within twenty 

 yards of my bungalow, so it seems more probable that a koel had made an 

 attempt to lay in the nest but had been frustrated, and that in the scuffle that 

 took place between the koel and the crow an egg had fallen out of nest. This 

 is, of course, all pure surmise. It is, however, worthy of note that I had seen a 

 cock and a hen koel hanging around this nest the day before. On the 22nd 

 there were still the three crow's eggs in the nest. I now played koel in this 

 nest, removing those eggs which had been first seen by me and on the 18th and 

 19th respectively, and replacing them by two koel's eggs which I had found 

 in a new nest under the following circumstances. 



I had come upon a fresh nest with a crow sitting on it, the nest was in a low 

 tree, and in a tree close by were a cock and a hen koel, both very excited. As 

 .they appeared to have designs upon this nest I decided to stay and watch. 

 After a minute or two the two koels flew off, calling excitedly. My climber 

 ran after them, but as it was very hot, and the sun was powerful, I remained 

 where I was. I heard the cuckoos making the most tremendous noise in the 

 distance. In about five minutes my climber came running up in a state of 

 great excitement, 'and told me he had seen the hen cuckoo lay an egg in a 

 crow's nest, of the existence of which he had previously not been aware, the 

 <jock had drawn off the crows, then the hen had rushed to the nest, and in less 

 than a minute he had seen her leave it with an egg in her mouth. He was 

 quite positive of this. He saw her fly with it to a tree near by. Without 

 waiting to see what then happened he had come running to fetch me. He 

 brought me to the tree which was a couple of hundred yards from where I had 

 been waiting, and on swarming up he found that the nest contained two 

 koel's eggs only. As there was quite a crowd watching him swarm up the 

 tree, I decided to take away the koel's eggs and put them in nest number 

 VIII, as being a safer place for them ! Thus it was that I played cuckoo in 

 nest number VIII,~substituting two koel's eggs for two crow's. In marking the 

 two koel's eggs I accidentally made a small hole in one with a pencil. Blood 

 issued from it, showing that the egg was not fresh, hence, although the climber 

 may have seen the koel fly away with a crow's egg in her beak, it was im- 

 possible that he had seen her lay an egg, since both appeared to be hard set. 

 I stuck a piece of a fowl's egg-shell over the hole and had both the koel's eggs 

 placed in nest number VIII, so that it now contained two koel's eggs and one 

 crow's. The next day the three eggs were all right. The crow had apparently 

 not noticed the substitution. I had been a successful cuckoo. 



On the 24th the egg which I had patched up with the chicken's egg-shell 

 had hatched out. The newly hatched koel is black all over and devoid of 

 feathers. It thus differs from the beginning from a young crow which is, when 

 it first issues from the egg, pink. The young koel, although less than a day old, 

 was very lively ; when it was lowered to me it opened its mouth wide and raised 



