76 Mr. A. Ohapman^s Rough Notes 



width, had a layer of dead leaves, and then a lining of twigs. 

 This species invariably lays but one large white e^^ ; hence 

 probably the relative smallness of their nests. Below are 

 always strewn many vertebrse of serpents. A female I shot 

 had a snake over 4 feet long in her beak, only a few inches 

 hanging outside ; another had a rabbit ; but snakes and large 

 reptiles are their principal food. The former are very 

 numerous, many reaching 6 feet in length ; and I killed 

 lizards exceeding 3 feet. The legs and feet of this Eagle are 

 pale blue; flight buoyant, but rather unsteady ; and they show 

 very white from below. I also found this species nesting in 

 mountain-forests in the sierra. 



In the Dofiana the Red Kite {Milvus ictinus) is rather 

 numerous, and my first day's work (April 15th) yielded 

 five or six of their nests : they were all built in the scattered 

 cork-trees, and each contained two eggs — some fresh, others 

 a good deal incubated. I was rather disappointed in the 

 eggs of this fine species ; several clutches were but faintly 

 marked, and one was absolutely white. In each case I shot 

 or trapped one or both of the old birds at the nest. In the 

 males the beak was invariably yellow almost to the tip, 

 whereas that colour in the females was confined to the cere, 

 the rest of the beak being horn-colour. Their well-known 

 habit of sticking a collection of gaudy rags and rubbish on 

 the branches round the nest was very useful in saving many 

 an unnecessary climb. No nest was worth going up to unless 

 a rag or two fluttered in the breeze. In one case I found a 

 dead and dried "White Owl hung up; in others quills of 

 Spoonbill and other birds, old match-boxes, &c. The Bla(;k 

 Kite (M. migrans) is more numerous, but breeds later. I did 

 not find their eggs till April 21st ; and early in May, in the 

 deliciously redolent pine-forest of La Marismilla, took a 

 large series, shooting most of the old birds ofl:' their nests. 

 Their eggs are fully as large and as richly marked as those 

 of the Red Kite, from which they are quite undistinguishable. 

 Neither species makes any lining to its nest ; and only once 

 ill each case did I find the dual nmnbcrof offspring exceeded, 

 namely, M. ictinus, three young, May 2nd, and 3/. migrans, 



