THE KING-CROW 43 
then jumped on to the ground and cowered at the base 
of the trunk of a tree, 
Still the little furies made swoops at him, so that he 
took to his heels and ran until he had put a long 
distance between himself and his foes. 
I think sufficient has been said to show that king- 
crows are able to look after their nests. 
Before passing on to consider some other traits 
of their sturdy character, a few words about the nest 
and eggs may not be out of place. The former is 
“a strong, neat cup of roots and grass,” covered over 
‘with cobwebs. It looks rather like a knot in a tree and 
hence is very difficult to distinguish when the bird is 
not sitting. The eggs are remarkable as being of three 
distinct types. They may be pure white, the ground 
colour may be white, spotted with red, or the general 
colour may be salmon, spotted with red, brown, and 
purple, 
This is, I think, a very hard nut for those to crack 
who maintain that eggs laid in nests are protectively 
coloured. Needless to say, the same kind of young 
bird comes out of each description of egg. The young, 
when they first leave the nest, closely resemble their 
parents, the chief point of difference being that the 
lower plumage is spotted with white or grey. The 
adult king-crow is a most beautiful object. Its beauty 
is that of form and proportion rather than of colour. 
It is the beauty of the athlete, of the racehorse, of the 
tiger, 
King-crows need to be of athletic build, for they live 
exclusively on flies and insects, which they catch on 
