PARASITIC HABITS OF THE INDIAN KOEL. 773 



By July 10th the young koel had become as large as a myna. Its breast and 

 abdominal feathers and its under tail-coverts were tipped with rufous, but 

 from above very little rufous was visible. On July 12th the young koel was 

 almost ready to leave the nest. When my climber tried to catch hold of 

 him he jumped out of the nest and fell, but managed to clutch with his large 

 and powerful claws a branch, and hung there, head downwards, until the climber 

 secured him. I then made him perch on the side of the tin can, he assumed 

 the characteristic koel attitude, and might have been mistaken for an adult 

 cock but for his brown eye, short tail, and the fact that a few of his feathers- 

 were tipped with a rufous band. 



On the 14th the young bird was sitting on a branch of the tree near the 

 nest. The climber managed to secure it. Its earlier feathers still had rufous 

 tips, but these had become less distinct. Having examined the bird I put 

 it on the lower branch of another tree to the disgust of its foster parents.. 

 When I returned later on it was sitting on a higher branch of the same troe- 

 I did not see it again. 



This example shows that the description which Blanford gives of the nest- 

 ing plumage is inaccurate. 



Nest Number II. 



On June 13th this contained one crow's egg, on the 14th a second crow's egg 

 had been laid. On the 15th we found, in addition to these two crow's eggs, a 

 koel's egg. On the 16th another crow's egg had been laid, and on the 17th yet 

 another, so that the nest now contained the koel's egg laid on the 15th and the 

 four crow's eggs laid on the 13th, 14th, 16th, and 17th respectively. 



The nest was visited daily and there was no change in its contents up to the 

 29th. If therefore the koel did eject a crow's egg it must have been one laid 

 after my visit on the 14th, and this must have been taken out by the koel 

 before my visit on the 15th, so that I never saw the egg at all. 



On the evening of June 29th the young koel had emerged from its egg, as 

 had two of the crows (on the 28th June not one of the eggs had hatched out), 

 so that the nest now contained a young koel, two crows and two crow's eggs. 

 By the 30th one of these had hatched out, so that there were three young crows 

 in the nest. The same state of affairs prevailed on July 1st ; by the 2nd all the 

 eggs had hatched out, so that the nest now contained a young koel and four 

 crow nestlings. I visited the nest daily and watched the growth of the brood 

 with interest. On July 5th the eldest of the crows was just beginning to- 

 show wing and tail feathers as tiny bristles, whereas the wing and tail feathers 

 of the koel were nearly half an inch in length. The crow's eyes were still 

 closed, but those of the koel open. The neck of the crow nestling is long and 

 the head hangs down. The koel's neck is short and it holds its head well back 

 between the shoulders. The crow has a mouth very much larger than that of 

 the koel, with great fleshy flaps to the edges of the mandibles. These the koel 

 lacks. Nevertheless the biggest crow, although not nearly so far advanced, was 

 considerably bigger than the koel. I tested the sensitiveness of this young koel- 



