CATALOGUE, 
711 
case, as shown by an observation made by Major Davidson (J. A. S. 
Beng. yill. p. 684), who remarks: * Happening to stand in the 
verandah of my bungalow, I heard a loud chattering noise on the lawn, 
and believing that a young Crow had fallen from its nest, I advanced 
to put it out of the reach of harm. Instead of a Crow, I was much 
surprised to find that an old Crow was feeding a young bird of a 
dark-brown colour, transversely striped with cinereous bars. On 
asking its name of a native who also saw it, he replied that it was a 
young Coel. I approached it within a few yards, and saw it receive 
food from the Crow's bill in the usual supplicating posture, with 
extended wings and body slightly quivering. My native informant 
also assured me that the Coel was always thus reared by the Crow, 
who invariably continued to feed its adopted nestling until it could 
shift for itself.' 
The egg of the Coel measures generally 1^ inches long ; sometimes, 
in more rotund specimens than usual, little more than 1 in. by f in. 
to |- in. where broadest, having ordinarily the small end well distin- 
guished, and, indeed, much resembling in size and form the egg of 
Dendrocitta rufa^ but of a considerably deeper colour ; still, it is of 
a pallid olive-green of different shades, marked all over with numerous 
reddish-dusky spots, much as in some Blackbirds' eggs, which are 
more numerous — in some much more numerous — towards the large 
end, where they incline to form a zone ; and, notwithstanding the 
difference of ground-colour from the egg of Cuculus canorus, there 
are few acquainted with the latter who would not at once suggest the 
Coel's to be a Cuculine egg of some kind, from a certain resemblance 
in its appearance to the Cuckoo's egg, which at once strikes the 
observer.' 
The Eev. T. Phillips, writing to Mr. Blyth, says, * With respect 
to the Crow discovering that the bird it has reared is an interloper, 
and consequently ejecting it from the nest, you seem to have doubts, 
on account of the anecdote related by Major Davidson ; now, against 
this I have to bring my own testimony, and that of an inteUigent 
native, who from his youth has been a keen sportsman and bird- 
fancier : he is also a man of undoubted veracity. He states that 
after the Coel has laid its egg in the Crow's nest, it comes often to 
watch the nest from a little distance, to see when its young is 
expelled. This happens as soon as it puts on the speckled dress, 
which is, when it is fledged. As soon as it is driven away, the mother 
takes her young into her charge, and feeds it. This he has often 
observed, being in the habit of watching these birds when at Gwalior. 
