ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOREIGN OOLOGY. 
that it has not that propensity, but the fact remains to be syste- 
matically observed. Mr. Frith informs us, that he has never found 
more than one Coél’s egg in a nest, and in his long experience, has 
only met with it in those of the two Indian Crows. He has re- 
peatedly seen the common ©. splendens attack and drive off the 
female Coél from its neighbourhood; and in one instance observed 
the latter, while trying to escape the pursuit, dash itself against: a 
pane of glass in an outhouse, with so much force, as to fall dead 
from the injury it received, the bill and fore-part of the head being 
quite smashed. The current native story is, that the Crow soon 
discovers the young Coél to be an interloper in its nest, and drives 
it away at an early age to find its own provender, but this is cer- 
tainly not the case, as shown by an anecdote related by Major 
Davidson, 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 
astonished to find, that an old Crow was feeding a young bird of a 
dark brown colour, transversely striped with cinerous bars. On 
asking its name of a native who also saw it, he replied, that it was a 
young Col. 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.’* His native infor- 
ne further assured Major Davidson, that the Coél was always 
US reared by the Crow, who invariably continued to feed its 
Adopted nestling until it could shift for itself. 
times he egg of the Coél measures generally 14 inches long, some- 
2a ™ more rotund specimens than usual, little more than 1 inch, 
Y 4 to # inch where broadest, having ordinarily the small end well 
ae and indeed much resembling in size and form the ego 
is beg ae rufa, but of a considerably deeper colour. Still it 
‘ie we olive-green of different shades, marked all over with 
‘iin pa reddish-dusky spots, tmauch as in some Blackbird’s eges, 
the “ wep aphasia some much more numerous—towards 
ing: th 8 cae > where they incline to form a zone; and notwithstand- 
ra, thers HES of ground colour from the egg of Cuculus eano- 
; e few acquainted with the latter who would not at once 
7 7 * J. A, S, viii. 684. 
