The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 | Page 5

of seventy-two eggs measured is 1·94 by 1·31.
Mandelli's men found four eggs of the larger Sikhim bird in Native Sikhim, high up towards the snows, where they were shooting Blood-Pheasants.
These eggs are long ovals, considerably pointed towards one end; the shell is strong and firm, and has scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour is pale bluish green, and the eggs are smudged and clouded all over with pale sepia; on the top of the eggs there are a few small spots and streaks of deep brownish black. They were found on the 5th March, and vary in length from 1·83 to 1·96, in breadth from 1·18 to 1·25.
3. Corvus corone, Linn. _The Carrion-Crow_.
Corvus corone, _Linn., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 295; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 659[A].
[Footnote A: Mr. Hume, at one time separated the Indian Carrion-Crow from Corvus corone under the name _C. pseudo-corone_. In his 'Catalogue' he re-unites them. I quite agree with him that the two birds are inseparable.--ED.]
The only Indian eggs of the Carrion-Crow which I have seen, and one of which, with the parent bird, I owe to Mr. Brooks, were taken by the latter gentleman on the 30th May at Sonamerg, Cashmere.
The eggs were broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, and of the regular Corvine type--a pretty pale green ground, blotched, smeared, streaked, spotted, and clouded, nowhere very profusely but most densely about the large end, with a greenish or olive-brown and pale sepia. The brown is a brighter and greener, or duller and more olive, lighter or darker, in different eggs, and even in different parts of the same egg. The shell is fine and close, but has only a faint gloss.
The eggs only varied from 1·67 to 1·68 in length, and from 1·14 to 1·18 in breadth.
Whether this bird breeds regularly or only as a straggler in Cashmere we do not know; it is always overlooked and passed by as a "Common Crow." Future visitors to Cashmere should try and clear up both the identity of the bird and all particulars about its nidification.
4. Corvus macrorhynchus, Wagler. _The Jungle-Crow_.
Corvus culminatus, _Sykes, Jerd. B, Ind._ ii, p. 295, Corvus levaillantii; _Less., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 660.
The Jungle-Crow (under which head I include[A] _C. culminatus,_ Sykes, _C. intermedius_, Adams, _C. andamanensis_, Tytler, and each and all of the races that occur within our limits) breeds almost everywhere in India, alike in the low country and in the hills both of Southern and Northern India, to an elevation of fully 8000 feet.
[Footnote A: See 'Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. 1874, p. 243, and 'Lahore to Yarkand,' p. 85.]
March to May is, I consider, the normal breeding-season; in the plains the majority lay in April, rarely later, and in the hills in May; but in the plains a few birds lay also in February.
The nest is placed as a rule on good-sized trees and pretty near their summits. In the plains mangos and tamarinds seem to be preferred, but I have found the nests on many different kinds of trees. The nest is large, circular, and composed of moderate-sized twigs; sometimes it is thick, massive, and compact; sometimes loose and straggling; always with a considerable depression in the centre, which is smoothly lined with large quantities of horsehair, or other stiff hair, grass, grass-roots, cocoanut-fibre, &c. In the hills they use any animal's hair or fur, if the latter is pretty stiff. They do not, according to my experience, affect luxuries in the way of soft down; it is always something moderately stiff, of the coir or horsehair type; nothing soft and fluffy. Coarse human hair, such as some of our native fellow-subjects can boast of, is often taken, when it can be got, in lieu of horsehair.
They lay four or five eggs. I have quite as often found the latter as the former number. I have never myself seen six eggs in one nest, but I have heard, on good authority, of six eggs being found.
Captain Unwin writes: "I found a nest of the Bow-billed Corby in the Agrore Valley, containing four eggs, on the 30th April. It was placed in a Cheer tree about 40 feet from the ground, and was made of sticks and lined with dry grass and hair."
Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding of this bird in the Valley of Cashmere:--
"Lays in the third week of April. Eggs four in number, ovato-pyriform, measuring from 1·6 to 1·7 in length and from 1·2 to 1·25 in breadth. Colour green spotted with brown; valley generally. Nest placed in Chinar and difficult trees."
Captain Hutton tells us that the Corby "occurs at Mussoorie throughout the year, and is very destructive to young fowls and pigeons; it breeds in May and June, and selects a tall tree, near