1330 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



Will you kindly verify my identification of the specimen which is 

 unfortunately in a somewhat shattered condition ? 



J. DONALD, i.F.s. 

 Ohikalda, Bekak, 22nd August 1912. 

 rThe bird is as Mr. Donald sugg-ested a G-rey Wagtail M. melanope. — Eds.] 



No. XIV.— EGGS OF THE LARGE HAWK-CUCKOO 

 {IIIER OCOCCYX SPAR VERIOIDLS) . 



In his " Indian Parasitic Cuckoos "Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker reproduces an 

 article of his printed in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 

 in 1906. The article shows that at the tirae of writing, the oology of this 

 cuckoo was not so thoroughly known as not to require further investigation. 

 Colonel Rattray was then the only person who had obtained undoubted 

 eggs of the bird, and though these were blue Mr. Stuart Baker hinted at 

 the possibility of there being also a chocolate coloured variety. 



For many years my brother Mr. B. B. Osmaston has tried to obtain eggs 

 of this cuckoo from the Himalayan region round about Naini Tal where at 

 suitable elevations it is no uncommon bird. During the rains of 1911, he 

 found a nest of the Red-headed Laughing-Thrush {Trochalopterum erythro- 

 cephalwn) close to Naini Tal and it contained two Laughing-Thrush's eggs. 

 Intending to rear the young birds he sent his chaprassy a few weeks later 

 to fetch them. The chaprassy returned with a young cuckoo, the sole 

 occupant of the nest, and the cuckoo proved to be a young one of //. 

 sparverioides . 



We now knew that this cuckoo laid her eggs in the nest of this bird, 

 and we decided to thoroughly search the same place again this year 

 for eggs. The hill overlooking Naini Tal rises to a height of 8,600 feet, 

 and for the last 1,000 feet the vegetation is chiefly " Karshu " oak mixed 

 with shrubs of various species. There are scarcely any birds breeding here 

 during the rains excepting the Red-headed Laughing-Thrush {Trochalop- 

 terum erythrocephalwn) and Himalayan Streaked Laughing-Thrush [Trocha- 

 lopterum lineatum) and of these the former is by far the commoner. In the 

 beginniag of June my brother visited the place and found the Large 

 Hawk-Cuckoo calling incessantly and in considerable numbers, but the 

 Redheaded Laughing-Thrushes had hardly commenced nesting. At the 

 beginning of July the cuckoos were still continually to be heard and the 

 Laughing-Thrushes were nesting in earnest. 



On 7th July I found a nest of T. erythrocephalum containing two fresh 

 Laughing-Thrush's eggs and one fresh cuckoo's egg. The nest was about 

 six feet from the ground in a dense holly bush. When I took the eggs a 

 cuckoo {H. sparverioides) was calling lustily only fifty yards away. 



On 18th July I found another nest of T. erythrocephalum containing one 



