248 
COCCYSTES JACOBINUS. 
with these birds at Aripu, and Layard records an instance at Port Pedro of a pair of these Babblers tending 
a young Crested Cuckoo in a bush ; and when he drew near they flew away before him, feigning lameness, and 
endeavoured to draw off his attention from their fosterling. An egg taken from the oviduct of a female 
killed in the Puttalam district was of a pale greenish or faded greenish-blue colour, and measured O' 95 by 
074 inch. 
In Aboo, Captain Butler states that they chiefly lay in the nests of the Striated Bush-Babbler ( Chatarrhaa 
caudata ) and also in those of the Bengal Babbler ( Malacocercus terricolor). The eggs are highly glossy and 
closely resemble, says Mr. Hume, those of the first-named species, so that they are well fitted for deposit in 
Babblers’ nests ; in shape they are “ round ovals . . . very glossy, and of a delicate full sky-blue,” and 
average 0 94 by 0'73 inch. 
