INDIAN CUCKOOS 221 
koel. Here would be a golden opportunity for them ; 
they would experience no difficulty in catching or de- 
stroying a newly fledged cuckoo. 
Some authorities have thought that during the earlier 
part of their life young koels retain the crow smell, and 
so are let alone by the strange crows they encounter. 
I do not think that this is the explanation. 
Smell does not appear to play an important part in 
the life of a bird. Of all the avine senses that of smell 
seems to be the least well developed. 
So far as my observation goes, it is the male koel 
which is chiefly attacked by the crows. I do not re- 
member ever having seen a female chased; she is so 
different from the cock bird in appearance that it is 
possible that the crows do not know that she is a koel. 
Now young koels of both sexes resemble the female 
in plumage, and I think that it is to this fact that they 
owe their immunity from attack. 
Cuckoos are, indeed, wonderful creatures. They are 
not content with victimizing ‘poor helpless little birds ; 
they select as their victims and dupes the boldest and 
bravest of the feathered race. The brain-fever bird 
victimizes the social and alert babblers. The koel 
chooses crows, of all birds. 
Another cuckoo, the Drongo-cuckoo (Surniculus 
lugubris), goes one better. It selects as its dupe the 
valiant and ever-vigilant king-crow. As we have 
already seen, the king-crow is, during the nesting 
season, a little fury. It will attack any bird or beast 
that ventures near its nest. It takes no account of 
size, The cuckoo that desired to victimize it might be 
