CORTUS. y

platform, with a central depression lined with grass-roots \ but
they are not particular as to material; I have found wool, rags,
grass, and all kinds of vegetable fibre, and Mr. Blyth mentions
that he has " seen several nests composed more or less, and two
almost exclusively, of the wires taken from soda-water bottles,
which had been purloined from the heaps of these wires commonly
set aside by the native servants until they amount to a saleable
quantity." Four is the normal number of eggs laid, but I often
have found five, and on two occasions six. It is in this bird's nest
that the Koel chiefly lays.

"Writing of Nepal, Dr. Scully remarks :—" In the valley it lays
in May and June; some twenty nests were once examined on the
23rd June, and half the number then contained young birds."

Major Bingham says:—" Very common, of course, both at
Allahabad and at Delhi, and breeds in June, July, and beginning
of August. At Allahabad it is much persecuted by the Koel
(Eudynaviys orientalis), every fourth or fifth nest that I found
in some topes of mango-trees having one or two of the Koel's
eggs."

Colonel Butler informs me that in Karachi it " begins to lay in
the mangrove bushes in the harbour as early as the end of May;"
and that it " breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in June, July,
and August, commencing to build in the last week of May."

Later, he writes :—." Belgaum, 15th May, 1879. Found nume-
rous nests in the native infantry lines in low trees, containing
fresh and incubated eggs and young birds of all sizes. In the same
locality, on the 30th March, 1880, I found a nest containing four
young birds able to fly; the eggs must therefore have been laid
quite as early as the middle of February, if not earlier."

Mr. Gr. "W. Vidal writes :—" The Common Crow appears to
have two broods in the year in our district (Eatnagiri), the first in
April and May, and the second in November and December. In
these four months I have found nests, eggs, and young birds in
several different places in the district, and as yet at no other
times. It is extremely improbable that there should be one
broeding-season lasting from April to December, and I think I may
State with certainty that the Crows do not breed at Eatnagiri
during the months of heaviest rainfall, viz. July, August, and
September. As their breeding in November and December appears
to be exceptional, I subjoin a record of the few nests I examined.

"Nov. 22, 1878. Eatnagiri:

" One nest with 3 young birds.
„ „ 1 fresh egg.

"Nov. 23, 1878. Eatnagiri:

" One nest with 1 fresh egg.
„ 1 fresh egg.

"Dec. 4, 1878. Saugmeshwar.—One nest with 3 eggs hard-set;
another nest probably containing young birds, but the Crows
pecked so viciously at the man who was climbing the tree, that he
got frightened and came down again without reaching the nest*