6	COHYIDJE.
the large end. Measures only 1*25 by 1'2. Neither in shape,
size, nor colour is it like a Corby's egg; but it is not a Koel's, or
that of any of our parasitic Cuckoos, and I have seen at home similar
pale eggs of the Book, Hooded Crow, Carrion-Crow, and Raven.
" Bareilly, May lOtfi.—Three fresh eggs in large nest on a
mango-tree. Nest as usual, but lined with an immense quantity
of horsehair. We brought this home and weighed it; it weighed
six ounces, and horsehair is very light."
Major 0. T. Bingham writes :—
" This Crow, so common at Allahabad, is very scarce here at
Delhi. In fact I have only seen one pair.
" At Allahabad it lays in February and March. I have, how-
ever, only found one nest, a rather loose structure of twigs and a
few thick branches with rather a deep depression, in the centre. It
"was placed on the very crown of a high toddy palm (Borassus
flabelliformis\ and was tmlined save for a wad of human.hair, 011
which the eggs, two in number, lay; these I found hard-set (on
the 13th March); in colour they were a pale greenish blue, boldly
blotched, spotted, and speckled with brown."
Colonel JButler has furnished me with the following note on the
breeding of the Jungle-Crow:—
"Belgaiim, 12th March, 1880.—A nest containing four fresh
eggs. It consisted of a loose structure of sticks lined with hair
and leaves, and was placed at the top of and in the centre of a
green-foliaged tree in a well-concealed situation about 30 feet
from the ground. 18th March : Two nests, each containing three
slightly incubated eggs ; one of the nests was quite iow^t down in
the centre of an ' arbor vitse' about 12 feet from the ground.
31st March: Another nest containing four slightly incubated eggs.
Some of the latter nests were very solidly built, and not so well
concealed, llth April: Two more nests, containing five incubated
and three slightly incubated eggs respectively; and on "the 14th
April a nest containing four slightly incubated eggs. These birds,
when the eggs are at all incubated, often sit very close, especially
if the nest is in an open situation, and in many instances I have
thrown several stones at the nest, and made as much row as I
could below without driving the old bird off, and I have seen my
nest-seeker within a few yards of the nest after climbing the tree
before the old bird flew off. On the 26th of April I found two
more nests, one containing four young birds just hatched, the other
three fresh eggs. On the 27th another nest containing three fresh
eggs, and on the 28th a nest of three fresh eggs. On the 5th May
two more nests containing four fresh and four "incubated eggs
respectively."
" In the Nilghiris," writes Mr. Davison, " the Corby builds a
coarse nest of twigs, lined with cocoanut-fibre or dry grass high
up in some densely-foliaged tree. The eggs are usually four, often
live, in number. The birds lay in April and May."
Miss Oockburn again says :—" They build like all Crows on large
trees merely by laying a few sticks together on some strong branch,