Mr. W. H. Simpson on the Nesting of Aquila imperialis, &c. 375 



lowed by the Christian flock of Thagastum ; but that it must be 

 a consolation to the cure to feel how mucTi nearer he was to his 

 predecessor than the Pope to St. Peter, as there have not been 

 half-a-dozen successors in the line between them. 



The next morning I set out on my tired steed for our new 

 camp at Kef Laks, where Salvin had been hard at work, and 

 where we made our most successful forays, of which my friend 

 has_already given an account to the readers of ' The Ibis.' 



XLVII. — On the Nesting of KqaiXdi imperialis and Falco sacer. 

 By W. H. Simpson, M.A., F.Z.S. 



(Plate XII.) 



Late in the afternoon of the 26th of April last, having driven 

 across the treeless plain of the Dobrudska, I descended from the 

 open plateau, which, in the part now alluded to, has a breadth 

 of about forty miles, upon one of the small valleys communi- 

 cating with the Danube. The bottom of this valley, like that of 

 many others on the south side of the river east of Silistria, is on 

 the same level as the Danube itself, the waters of that river 

 during the spring and summer floods flowing back naturally for 

 several miles towards the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. A 

 portion of the valley is consequently converted into a series of 

 swampy lakes, communicating with the river by means of a deep 

 and narrow canal, the mouth of which has recently been banked 

 up, in order to prevent the Danube from inundating the valley. 

 Conformable to the course of this canal is a line of stout pollard 

 willows, of no great height, which however, stunted as they 

 are, afford the finest specimens of the arboreal world to be seen 

 between here and the sea-coast. Low cliff's of limestone flank 

 portions of the valley about the point where the Araba road 

 descends into it; in these clifi^s it was supposed that Vultur 

 cinereus might be found breeding, though that supposition 

 turned out to be incorrect. 



At this spot I had quitted the Araba and joined two friends, 

 who had come to meet me on horseback, when our attention was 

 immediately drawn to a large nest that completely filled the 

 boll of one of the aforesaid pollards. It was not very conspi- 



VOL. If. 2d 



