ADDITIONAL CUCKOO NOTES. 893 



Mr. A. M. Primrose and one by Mr. Charles Inglis — are very much 

 alike, and are certainly quite unlike the se he rice eggs with which they 

 were found, but I have taken eggs of seherice myself in Hungrum and 

 elsewhere which exactly resemble these supposed Cuckoo's eggs. 



All three nests contained two Sun-bird's eggs in addition to the 

 third different egg. The Sun-bird's eggs have pure white grounds and 

 are fairly profusely and boldly blotched and speckled with dark grey- 

 brown with other spots underlying of rather pale grey. They are 

 clear, smart looking eggs, whereas the supposed Cuckoos are quite the 

 reverse. The latter have very dull yellowish white grounds with very 

 profuse but smudgy markings of light sienna brown, a few of the 

 blotches being rather darker and more grey. They measure 

 •66" X '46" and '62" x "47" and are much larger than the Sun-bird's 

 egg, which only measures on an average '55" X '44" ; at the same time 

 I have specimens of this Sun -bird's eggs in my collection quite as large 

 as these supposed Cuckoo's eggs. 



COCOYSTBS JACOBINUS. 



The Pied Crested Cuckoo. 



I have received the following interesting account from Mr. J. Lind- 

 say Hervey, of Dharbanga, about the depositing of an egg of this 

 Cuckoo in the nest of the Jungle Babbler (Crateropus canorus) : — 



" 1 first noticed the Babbler's nest on the morning of the 27th June 

 1906 ; it was situated about ten feet up on a guava tree in the garden 

 here and well concealed in a thick clump of leaves. The Babbler was 

 sitting tight and the nest contained two eggs, unmistakeably Babbler's, 

 both these eggs I marked with a pencil and put back into the nest. I 

 again visited the nest next morning and found that a third egg had 

 been laid, this egg I also marked. I then retired a little way off 

 (about fifteen yards) to another guava tree and began watching a pair 

 of Orthotomus sutorius that were hopping about among the leaves and 

 evidently selecting a nesting site. When I had been watching them 

 about five minutes I heard two or three Babblers making a great noise 

 in the tree under which was the Babbler's nest ; turning round to see 

 what caused the alarm I saw a Coccystes jacobinus seated on a twig near 

 the nest and tha Babblers hopping about around it chattering in great 

 excitement : the Cuckoo then hopped on to the nest and the Babblers 

 made off. Breathlessly I watched what would happen next, and a 

 second or so later the Cuckoo flew down to the foot of the tree where 



