612 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLSTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



above the other noises in the garden, and which could fairly well be presented 

 by trying to whistle the word 'you.' There was a certain amount of anxiety 

 in the note and at once I understood it to be a warning note to its mate 

 somewhere close at hand, and on looking up into the bush near wl'ich 

 I stood within three feet of my head was a nest. T immediately moved 

 away and relieved the bird (f its anxiety. Visited the spot ((gain on 

 the 7th, one of the parent birds flew oif the nest at my approach; on 

 examining it I found it contained ^four eggs, which I left for the birds to 

 hatch out," 



W. D. GUMMING. 

 Omar A, March 1902. 



No. XXIII.— CROW AND KOEL'S EGG. 



The following account of the behaviour of a c mmon crow may be 

 worth recording in our Journal : — 



Yesterday evening, as I was standing in the verandah, I saw a crow 

 swoop down on to a croton pot with a green fruit-like object in his beak 

 This he deposited on th^ earth in the pot, and sat oti the further edge thereof 

 regarding it. Suspecting that he or she might be a bird of cannibal proclivi- 

 ties, I walked up to the croton pot and drove the bird off. I then picked 

 up the object which the bird had deposited and found it to be a very deep 

 sea-green coloured egg of the Indian Koel {^Eudynamis honorata). The 

 following thoughts at once suggested themselves to me : — Was the crow 

 the part-owner of the uest in which the koel's egg was laid ; and if so, how 

 did he or she discern the koel's egg from amongst the other crow's eggs in 

 the nest, or was this bird merely preying on any eggs it found in other crow's 

 nests? I think the last of these is the most likely. The <-gg was absolutely 

 uninjured, and from its weight appears to be hard set (I have not yet 

 attempted to blow it), and was equally carefully placed by the crow on the 

 soil in the croton pot as ic had been carried there en route from the nest. 

 Doubtless the crow was about to e t, the egg till my curiosity led me to see 

 what the " green fruit " was, 



C. D. LESTER, Capt. 

 POONA, 2Sth June 1902. 



No. XXIV.— NOTE ON A FLYING-SQUIRREL {PTKROMYS 

 Oi24L) FOUND IN THE THANA DISTRICT (BOMBAY). 



The animal was found on a tree in rather open country at Vehigaon 

 in the Khardi Forest Range, Shahpur Taluka, on the 14th April last. 

 It is said to be very rare in the Thana District. 



G. M. RYAN, I.F.S., F.L.S. 

 Bamdra, 3rd Juhj 1902. 



