COEVUS. o 



or other stiff hair, grass, grass-roots, cocoanut- fibre, &c. In the 

 hills they use any animal's hair or fur, if the latter is pretty stiff. 

 They do not, according to my experience, affect luxuries in the way 

 of soft down ; it is always something moderately stiff, of the coir 

 or horsehair type ; nothing soft and fluffy. Coarse human haii', 

 such as some of our native fellow-subjects can boast of, is often 

 taken, when it can be got, in lieu of horsehair. 



They lay four or five eggs. I have quite as often found the 

 latter as the former num-ber. I have never myself seen six eggs in 

 one nest, but I have heard, on good authority, of six eggs being found. 



Captain Unwin writes : " I found a nest of the Bow-billed 

 Corby in the Agrore Valley, containing four eggs, on the 30th 

 April. It was placed in a Cheer tree about 40 feet from the 

 ground, and was made of sticks and lined with dry grass and 

 hair." 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding 

 of this bird in the Valley of Cashmere : — 



" Lays in the third week of April. Eggs four in number, ovato- 

 pyriform, measuring from 1'6 to 1*7 in length and from V2 to 

 1-25 in breadtli. Colour green spotted with brown; valley 

 generally. Xest placed in Chinar and difficult trees." 



Captain Hutton tells us that the Corby " occurs at Mussoorie 

 throughout the year, and is very destructive to young fowls and 

 pigeons ; it breeds in May and June, and selects a tall tree, near a 

 house or village, on which to build its nest, which is composed 

 externally of dried sticks and twigs, and lined with grass and hair, 

 which latter material it will pick from the backs of horses and 

 cows, or from skins of animals laid out to dry. I have had skins 

 of the Surrow (NcemorJuedus tliar) nearly destroyed by their de- 

 predations. The eggs are three or four in number." 



Erom the plains I have very few notes. I transcribe a few of 

 my own. 



" On the 11th March, near Oreyah, I found a nest of a Corby — 

 a good large stick nest, built with tamarind twigs, and placed fully 

 40 feet from the ground in the fork of a mango-tree standing by 

 itself. The nest measured quite 18 inches in diameter and five in 

 thickness. It was a nearly flat platform with a central depression 

 8 inches in diameter, and not more than 2 deep, but there was a 

 solid pad of horsehair more than an inch thick below this. I took 

 the mass out ; it must have weighed half a pound. Tour eggs 

 much incubated. 



" Etaivali, l-ith March. — Another nest at the top of one of the huge 

 tamarind-trees behind the Asthul : could not get up to it. A boy 

 brought the nest down ; it was not above a foot across, and perhaps 

 3 inches deep ; cavity about 6 inches in diameter, thickly lined 

 with grass-roots, inside which again was a coating of horsehair 

 perhaps a rupee in thickness ; nest swarming with vermin. Eggs 

 five, quite fresh ; four eggs normal ; one quite round, a pure pale 

 slightly greenish blue, with only a few very minute spots and 

 specks of brown ha^ ing a tendency to form a feeble zone round 



