The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 by Allan O. Hume
page 30 of 758 (03%)
page 30 of 758 (03%)
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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, as far as coloration goes, to be found amongst those of the Raven, are found amongst the eggs of the present species, and _vice versâ_; and for a description of these it is only necessary to refer to the account of the former species; but I may notice that amongst the eggs of _C. macrorhynchus_ I have not yet noticed any so boldly blotched as is occasionally the case with some of the eggs of the Raven, which remind one not a little, so far as the character of the markings go, of eggs of _Oedicnemus crepitans_ and _Esacus recurvirostris_. Like those of the Raven the eggs exhibit little gloss, though here and there a fairly glossy egg is met with. Eggs from various parts of the Himalayas, of the plains of Upper India, of the hills and plains of Southern India, do not differ in any respect. _Inter se_ the eggs from each locality differ surprisingly in size, in tone of colour, and in character of markings; but when you compare a dozen or twenty from each locality, you find that these differences are purely individual and in no degree referable to locality. There are just as big eggs and just as small ones from Simla and Kotegurh, from Cashmere, from Etawah, Bareilly, Futtehgurh, from Kotagherry, and Conoor; all that one can possibly say is that perhaps the Plains birds do on the _average_ lay a _shade larger_ eggs than |
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