nearly all over the Nilghiris. The usual
number of eggs laid is four, but on one occasion, near the Quinine
Laboratory in the Government Gardens at Ooty, I procured 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 brown, 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 Bengal 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, 1877, I took two perfectly 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 kudum 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. Oates 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:--
"Lays in the third week of February and fourth week of March: eggs
ovato-pyriform; 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 Raven, but they are, I think, typically
somewhat broader and shorter. Almost every variety, a
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