8 CORVIDJE.

tion goes, to be found amongst those of the Raven, are found
amongst the eggs of the present species, and vice versa; and for a
description of these it is only necessary to refer to the account of
the former species; but I may notice that amongst the eggs of
C. macrorhyncJms I have not yet noticed any so boldly blotched as is
occasionally the case with some of the eggs of the Eaven, which
remind one not a little, so far as the character of the markings go, of
eggs of (Edicnemus crepitans and Esacus recurvirostris. Like those
of the Eaven the eggs exhibit little gloss, though here and there a
fairly glossy egg is met with. Eggs from various parts of the
Himalayas, of the plains of Upper India, of the hills and plains of
Southern India, do not differ in any respect. Inter se the eggs
from each locality differ surprisingly in size, in tone of: colour, and
in character of markings ; but when you compare a dozen or twenty
from each locality, you find that these differences are purely indi-
vidual and in no degree referable to locality.

There are just as big eggs and just as small ones from Simla and
Kotegurh, from Cashmere, from Etawah, Bareilly, Euttehgurh,
from Kotagherry, and Conoor ; all that one can possibly say is that
perhaps the Plains birds clo on the average lay a shade larger eggs
than the Himalayan or Nilghiri ones.

Taking the eggs as a whole, I think that in size and shape they
are about intermediate between the eggs of the European Carrion-
Crow and Eook. But they vary, as I said, astonishingly in size,
from 1-5 to l'9o in length, and iii breadth from 1-12 to 1-22, and
I have one perfectly spherical egg, a deformity of course, which
measures 1-25 by 1/2.

The average of thirty Himalayan eggs is 1-73 by 1-18, of twenty
Plains eggs 1-74 by 1*2, and of fifteen Nilghiri eggs 1-7 by 1*18.
I would venture to predict that with fifty of each, there would not
be a hundredth of an inch between their averages.

7. Corvus splendens, Yieill. The Indian House-Crow.

Corvus splendens, Vieitt. Jercl B. Ind. ii, p. 298.

Corvus impudicus, Hodys., Hume, HowjJi Draft N. fy E. no. 663.

Throughout India and Upper Burma the Common Crow resides
and breeds, not ascending the hills either in Southern or Northern
India to any great elevation, but breeding up to 4000 feet in the
Himalayas.

The breeding-season par excellence is June and July, but occa-
sional nests will be found earlier even in Upper India, and in
Southern and Eastern India a great number lay in May. The
nests are commonly placed in trees without much regard to size or
kind, though densely foliagecl ones are preferred, and I have just
as often found several in the same tree as single ones. At times
they will build in nooks of ruins or large deserted buildings, where
these are in well inhabited localities, but out of many thousands I
have only seen three or four nests in such abnormal positions.

The nest is placed in some fork, and is usually a ragged stick