4 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



leniently on head-tickling and such-like simple 

 connubial reciprocities, is very severe upon any 

 unfortunate couple of his kind who go too far in a 

 public display of affection, as I have witnessed on 

 more than one occasion ; and as for the wing-drooping, 

 tail-cocking strut which the English rook indulges 

 in during the breeding season, any Calcutta Crow 

 who presumed to show off in such a way would most 

 likely be very soon taught that it was " no matter for 

 his swellings, nor his turkey-cocks." This persistent 

 interference by Crows in each other's domestic 

 affairs may be the reason why there seem to be so 

 few nests in proportion to the numbers of Crows one 

 sees. Although this Crow lives so much in the 

 company of man, it has not taken much to nesting in 

 buildings, usually preferring a tree ; though here 

 and there pairs will attempt a nest on a house, and 

 Mr. B. Aitken, in Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian 

 Birds," has given a long and amusing account of an 

 idiotic couple who wasted a whole breeding season in 

 trying to make nests in utterly impossible positions 

 in the verandah of the Madras Mail office ; other 

 eccentrics, wiser in their way, have built nests of 

 wire, and ia one case even of gold and silver spectacle 

 frames. I have seen one bird which was vainly 

 tryipg with its mate to construct a nest in one of the 

 little round windows of the Economic and Art section 



