couvus. 7

generally very high, up in the tree. I do not remember ever
seeing more than one nest on a tree at a time, so that they differ
very much from the Book in that respect. They lay four eggs of
a bluish green, with dusky blotches and spots, and nothing can
exceed the care and attention they bestow on their young. Even
when the latter are able to leave their nests and take long flights,
the parent birds will accompany them as if to prevent their getting
into mischief. The nests are found in April and May."

Mr. J. Darling, jun., writes from the Nilghiris :—"I have found
the nest of this Crow pretty nearly all over the Nilglriris. The
usual number of eggs laid is four, but on one occasion, near the
Quinine Laboratory in the Government Gardens at Ooty, I pro-
cured six from one nest. The breeding-season is from March to
May, but I have taken eggs as early as the 12th February."

From Ceylon, we hear from Mr. Layard that " about the villages
the Carrion-Crow builds its nest in the cocoanut-trees. In the
jungles it selects a tall tree, amid the upper branches of which it
fixes a framework of sticks, and on this constructs a nest of twigs
and grasses. The eggs, from three to five, are usually of a dull
greenish-brown colour, thickly mottled with browu3 these markings
being most prevalent at the small end. They are usually laid in
January and February."

Mr. J. E. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Eengal. it is
" common and a permanent resident. Occasionally found in the
clumps of: jungle that are found about the country, which the next
species never affects. Breeds in the cold weather. I had noticed
a pair building on a Casuarina tree in my garden, about 50 feet
off the ground, and on the 18th December, 1S77, I took two per-
fectly fresh eggs from it; and again on the 9th January, 1878, I
found two callow young in this same nest, the birds never having
deserted it. The lining used for this nest was principally jute-
fibre—any tree is selected to build on; the nests are placed from
15 to 50 feet off the ground. Some nests are very well concealed,
whereas others are quite exposed. On the 15th January I found
a nest about 15 feet up a small kuclum tree, standing in a large
plain, and which had a lining of hair from the tail-tufts of cows.
There was one fresh egg, and a week later I got another fresh egg
from this very nest. From two to four eggs are in each nest."

Mr. Gates writes from Pegu :•—" These birds all begin to build
about the same time, and I have taken numerous nests • at the
end of January. At the end of February most nests contain
young birds." •

Mr. "W. Theobald gives the following notes on the nidification
of this bird in Tenasserim and near Deoghur:—

41 Lays in the third week of February and fourth week of March :
eggs ovato-pyriforni; size 1*66 by 1*15; colour, dull sap-green
much blotched with brown; nest carefully placed in tall trees."

The eggs, though smaller, closely resemble, as might have been
expected, those of the B/aven, but they are, I think, typically some-
what broader and shorter. Almost every variety, as far as colora-