ived of their eggs,
straightway laid a second set, neither so large nor so well coloured
as the first, but still fertile eggs that were duly hatched. But for
the removal of the first set, these subsequent eggs would never have
been developed or laid. Now, the theory has always been that the
contact of the sperm- and germ-cells causes the development and
fertilization of the latter. In these cases no fresh accession of
sperm-cells was possible, and hence it would seem as if in some birds
the female organs were able to store up living sperm-cells, which
only work to fertilize and develop ova in the event of some accident
rendering it necessary, and which otherwise ultimately lose vitality
and pass away without action.

"The nest of the King-Crow that we took was of the ordinary type; in
fact I have noticed scarcely any difference in the shape or materials
of all the numerous nests of this common bird that I have yet seen.
They are all composed of tiny twigs and fine grass-stems, and the
roots of the khus-khus grass, as a rule, neatly and tightly woven
together, and exteriorly bound round with a good deal of cobweb, in
which a few feathers are sometimes entangled. The cavity is broad and
shallow, and at times lined with horsehair or fine grass, but most
commonly only with khus. The bottom of the nest is very thin, but the
sides or rim rather firm and thick; in this case the cavity was 4
inches in diameter, and about 11/2 in depth, and contained three pure
white glossless eggs. In the very next tree, however (a mango, and
this is perhaps their favourite tree), was another similar nest,
containing four eggs, slightly glossy, with a salmon-pink tinge
throughout, and numerous well-marked brownish-red specks and
spots, most numerous towards the large end, looking vastly like
Brobdingnagian specimens of the Rocket-bird's eggs. The variation in
this bird's eggs is remarkable; out of more than one hundred eggs
nearly one third have been pure white, and between the dead glossless
purely white egg and a somewhat glossy, warm pinky grounded one, with
numerous well-marked spots and specks of maroon colour, dull-red, and
red-brown or even dusky, every possible gradation is found. Each set
of eggs, however, seems to be invariably of the same type, and we have
never yet found a quite white and a well coloured and marked egg in
the same nest.

"These birds are very jealous of the approach of other birds even of
their own species to a n