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

same egg. Almost each nest of eggs exhibits some peculiarity, and
varieties are endless. With sixty or seventy eggs before one, it is easy to
pick out in almost every case all the eggs that belong to the same nest,
and this is a peculiarity that I have observed in the eggs of many
members of this family. All the eggs out of the same nest usually
closely resemble each other, while almost any two eggs out of different
nests are markedly dissimilar.
They vary from 1·72 to 2·25 in length, and from 1·2 to 1·37 in width;
but the average 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