364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



out for such mishaps — the competition for materials being very 

 keen — would fly down after it, and then invariably ensued a 

 struggle for ownership. 



I have often wondered whether it is reason or instinct that 

 guides Jungle Crows (Corvus macrorhynchus) to the nests and 

 young of small birds. It has been said that some schoolboys 

 have a genius for discovering hidden nests, and all observers in 

 India will agree that crows are in no way behind boys in this 

 respect. These birds are not usually to be seen searching 

 systematically for nests, as an oologist has to do, and yet the 

 numbers of eggs destroyed by the former is something appalling. 

 They are doubtless to a very large extent guided to the spots by 

 the movements of the parent birds. 



Crows apparently know that water has a softening effect, 

 as a couple of years ago I saw one of these birds frequently 

 bring a bone or dry piece of bread, drop it into a bucket 

 containing some water, let it soak for a little while, and then 

 eat it. 



A few years ago I was fortunate enough to witness a curious 

 case of intelligence displayed by Short-billed Minivets (Peri- 

 crocotus brevirostris) when they found that their young were in 

 danger (vide ' Journal of Natural History Society,' Bombay, 

 vol. xx., No. 2). A friend and myself were out egg-hunting, 

 and found a nest of this species on a Himalayan cedar. 

 When my man had climbed up the tree close to the nest, 

 the parent birds (as I afterwards discovered them to be) began 

 to behave in a most singular manner. They would turn 

 their tails inwards between their legs, spread out their wings, 

 and flutter down from a neighbouring tree on to the ground, 

 just as a young bird, which could scarcely fly, would do. I 

 at first thought that these birds were the young ones from some 

 other nest which might be close by, and began chasing them 

 about in order to catch them. As soon as I got close to one of 

 them, it would steady itself, and fly on to the branch of a neigh- 

 bouring tree, only to repeat the performance again. After 

 watching them for some time, and observing them closely, I 

 discovered to my astonishment that they were the parent birds ! 

 Their object in behaving in this extraordinary manner apparently 

 was to entice us away from the spot by trying to delude us into 



