Coccystes jacobinus (Bodd.).  
The Crested Pied Cuckoo.

Coccystes melanoleucos (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 339.
Coccystes jacobinus (Bodd.), Hume, Bough Draft N. & E. no. 212.

Our Indian Crested Pied Cuckoo lays, in the plains of India and the lower ranges of the Himalayas, during the latter half of June, July, and August. From Pind Dadun Khan to Tipperah, and from Dehra Doon to Salem, the season seems to be the same, but in the Nilghiris the various Babblers, in whose nests this species deposits its eggs, breed in January, February, and March, and there this Cuckoo also seems to lay in those months. Mr. R. Thompson writes  : -" In Dehra Doon this species is very common, and lays in July and August in the nests of the Crateropi, whom I have constantly watched later in the year feeding the young of this species. I have seen it in Gurhwal during the breeding - season, but it is not common there."

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadun Khan and Katas in the Salt Range : -" Lay in August; eggs, one only; shape, blunt oval; size, 0.91 inch by 0.81 inch ; colour, deep greenish blue. This evidently parasitical egg was taken from the nest of Malacocercus caudatus containing four ordinary eggs, which it closely resembles in colour, though its form indicates its parasitical character."

Mr. A. G. R. Theobald, writing from Aptoor, Salem District, says he took an egg out of the oviduct of a female on the 18th August.

The only species in whose nests I have myself known the eggs of this Cuckoo ever to occur, are Argya malcolmi, Crateropus canorus, Argya caudata, and Argyu earlii, and by far the most frequently in those of the former.

From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn remarks  : -" On the Nilghiris it appears to be exclusively in the nests of the large Grey Babbler (A. malcolmi) and of our Common Laughing - Thrush (T. cachinnans) that the Pied Crested Cuckoo deposits its two greenish - blue eggs."

As a rule, the young Cuckoo is the only bird that the foster - parents rear ; numbers of times I have seen a pair of A. malcolmi in careful attendance on a ravenous and clamorous young Cuckoo) but never with any young of their own in company with it. And yet one always finds three or four of the Babbler's eggs along with the Cuckoo's, showing that it is not the parent Cuckoo in this case that gets rid of the eggs to make room for her own. It is probably the young Cuckoo that ousts his nest - fellows.

Mr. B. M. Adam says  : -" On the 13th August I observed in a garden in Agra two young birds of this species  -  which had apparently just left the nest  -  being fed by an Argya malcolmi. There was also a young A. malcolmi with the party."

Major C. T. Bingham writes : -" I have several eggs which I suspect to be those of this Cuckoo, found in nests of Argya malcolmi, but I am certain of only one egg, and that a wounded bird dropped. It is a bright greenish blue, highly glossed, and measures 0.99 by 0.82."

Colonel Butler remarks : -"The Crested Pied Cuckoo lays freely in the neighbourhood of Deesa in July, August,  and September, commencing about the middle of the former month.

The following are some  of the dates upon which 1 found eggs  : -

" July 10th, 1875.   1 fresh egg in nest of Argya caudata, ,,
19th,    ,,    „    ,,    „        „
„    24th,   „    „    „       Crateropus canorus.
„    28th, 1876.    „    „       A. caudata.
„    30th,   „    ,,    ,,    „
„    30th,    „    „    „       C. canorus.
Aug. loth,   „    „    „       A. caudata.
16th,    „    „    „    „
16th, „ 1    youngbird  
17th,   „     1 fresh egg     „    „
„    23rd,   „     1 incubated egg „    „
Sept. 2oth,   „     1 fresh egg     „    „

“The egg as a rule is a very perfect oval, blunt at both ends ; in colour a deep greenish olive, sometimes inconspicuously marked with small dark greenish blotches or stains at one end. The number of Babblers' eggs in the nests I have mentioned varied from two to four. In some instances the Babblers' eggs were about to hatch (chipped), and yet the Cuckoo's egg was quite fresh ; and in one instance I found a fresh Cuckoo's egg in a nest with three young birds, so that no rule can be laid down as to when these Cuckoos lay their eggs. In fact they seem to deposit them at any time, quite regardless of the condition of the eggs of the nest in which they are laid. I have often noticed also that when they discover a nest which does not suit them to lay in, they almost invariably destroy the eggs of the Babbler by driving a hole into them with their beaks, and sucking a portion or the whole of their contents."

Mr. E. Aitken records the following note  : -" About the end of July 1875 two eggs were brought to me, in the nest of a Babbler, presumably A. malcolmi. They were remarkably round, almost as much so as those of Merops viridis. On puncturing them preparatory to boring a hole, I discovered they were hard - set. One of them broke during the operation and contained an almost perfectly formed foetus, in which I was easily able to detect the scansorial foot of a Cuckoo, by its long and reversible outer toe. I send you this egg; it measures 0.90 in length by 0.78 in breadth. The other was not so far advanced, the chick was extracted piecemeal; but by placing the tarsus and foot in weak spirit and water and examining it with a needle, I was enabled to trace the same peculiarity. I carefully compared the feet of foetal Babblers with these, which I preserved in spirit, three days after, and found that the Babblers had remarkably stout feet; so I think there can be no doubt of the correctness of my identification. This egg measures 0.86 in length by 0.77.

"In 1876 I extracted an egg from the oviduct of a female Coccystes jacobinus shot off the telegraph - wires at the station of Jusra, which was the counterpart of the pair I speak of. The same season I got a similar egg along with three of A. malcolmi and immediately recognized it.

" All four eggs were fresh, the parasitical one quite so. Whenever I have a lot of eggs, I always puncture them first and bore them afterwards. In doing this I could not help noticing that the Cuckoo's eggs required twice as much pressure to prick, and seemed to have a very much thicker shell, the albumen was also of a beautiful blue - green colour, that of the Babblers colourless. This egg measures 0.94 by 0.75, and has so thick a shell that it has some species of entozoa embedded in a double spiral, in a sort of calcareous deposit at one end."

Colonel G. F. L. Marshall says : -"An egg which I took from the oviduct of a female in July was nearly round, of a deep blue colour, and with a very hard thick shell; I do not know if this latter character is constant, but if so it would serve at once to distinguish these eggs from eggs of the Crateropi. It has not, I believe, been noticed before."

Mr. J. Davidson tells us that this Cuckoo is " very common in all the scrub jungles round Dhulia, laying in the nests of A. malcolmi and A. caudata; from the eggs of the latter its eggs are readily distinguishable."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says of this Cuckoo : -" It deposits a single egg of a very brilliant greenish blue, the greenish tinge predominating, in the nest of Malacocercus griseus. Both extremities of the egg are alike in shape. Lays from March to May. Before dropping its own egg it always ejects one of the eggs of the rightful owner."

Colonel W. Vincent Legge, writing of this species in Ceylon, says  : -" An egg ready for expulsion was found in a bird of this species killed last November at Puttalam, Western Province. It is now in the Museum of the R.A. Society of Ceylon, and is of a pale sky - blue colour, measuring 0.95 by 0.74. Mr. Holdswortb, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 432, supposes it to lay in the nest of Malacocercus striatus, and Layard found a young bird under the care of a pair of these Babblers."

The eggs of this species are well fitted for deposit in the nests of the various species of Babblers (Argya and Crateropus), usually chosen as foster - parents for its young by the Crested Pied Cuckoo. In colour they are a spotless blue, darker or lighter in different specimens ; but all are highly glossy and closely resemble the eggs of Argya caudata, in whose nest also this bird occasionally deposits its eggs. Even from the eggs of Crateropus malcolmi, in whose nest they are in Upper India most commonly found, it is only by their somewhat diminutive size and very round oval shape that they can be distinguished.   This Babbler itself, however sometimes, I am inclined to believe, lays abnormally small eggs of this shape; so that the only specimens that I really fully rely on are those which have been taken out of the oviduct of the female : these are very round ovals, recalling in shape the eggs of the Bee - eaters, very glossy and of a delicate full - sky blue. Those obtained from the nests to and from which the bird had been watched are exactly similar, but of a somewhat darker and deeper hue.

The eggs vary in length from 0.9 to 0.98 inch, and in breadth from 0.72 to 0.82 inch; but the average of a series is 0.94 by 0.73 inch.