r young birds.

As has already been stated, crows spend, much time in teasing and
annoying other birds. Retribution overtakes them in the nesting
season. The Indian koel (_Eudynamis honorata_) cuckolds them. The
crows either are aware of this or have an instinctive dislike to this
cuckoo. The sight of the koel affects a crow in much the same way as a
red cloth irritates a bull. One of these cuckoos has but to perch in a
tree that contains a crow's nest and begin calling in order to make
both the owners of the nest attack him. The koel takes full advantage
of this fact. The cock approaches the nest and begins uttering his
fluty _kuil_, _kuil_. The crows forthwith dash savagely at him. He
flies off pursued by them. He can easily outdistance his pursuers, but
is content to keep a lead of a few feet, crying _pip-pip_ or
_kuil-kuil_, and thus he lures the parent crows to some distance. No
sooner are their backs turned than the hen koel slips quietly into the
nest and deposits an egg in it. If she have time she carries off or
throws out one or more of the legitimate eggs. When the crows return
to the nest, having failed to catch the cock koel, they do not appear
to notice the trick played upon them, although the koel's egg is
smaller than theirs and of an olive-green colour. Through the greater
part of June and July the koels keep the crows busy chasing them.
Something approaching pandemonium reigns in the neighbourhood of a
colony of nesting crows: from dawn till nightfall the shrieks and
yells of the koels mingle with the harsh notes of the crows.

Sometimes the crows return from the chase of the cock koel before the
hen is ready, and surprise her in the nest; then they attack her. She
flees in terror, and is followed by the corvi. Her screams when being
thus pursued are loud enough to awaken the Seven Sleepers. She has
cause for alarm, for, if the raging crows catch her, they will
assuredly kill her. Such a tragedy does sometimes occur.

Not infrequently it happens that more than one koel's egg is laid in a
crow's nest.

The incubation period of the egg of the koel is shorter than that of
the crow, the consequence is that when, as usually happens, there is
one of the former and several of the latter in a nest, the young koel
is invariably the first to emerge. It does not attempt to eject from
the nest either the legitimate eggs or the young crows when they
appear on the scene. Indeed, it lives on excellent terms with i