near Nynee Tal and Almorah. 45 



but was obliged to retire. Tlie ravine in which the robber was, 

 was about 1000 feet below where I was, and I descended to the 

 spot gun in hand. Being in the narrow ravine I arrived unper- 

 ceived within ten yards of the bird, which looked suddenly up, 

 turning upon me his keen angry yellow eye. He stared for 

 nearly a minute at me, and then reluctantly flew down the ravine, 

 leaving the remains of the fowl. At about forty yards he fell 

 dead to my charge, which had done its work too well, cutting 

 off the hooked portion of the bill. It was a very white-breasted 

 specimen, the black lines being narrower than in any one 

 I had previously shot. It was, therefore, not a very old bird, 

 as the black markings on the breast of the young buff bird are 

 very faint and narrow. This Eagle breeds in the plains in the 

 Etawah district, the situation chosen being generally the high 

 clay cliffs of the rivers Jumna and Chumbul. Two or three 

 times I have known the nest to be built in a large tree. In the 

 cliffs the nest was generally about twelve or fourteen feet from 

 the top of the cliff, built of sticks and twigs, two or three feet in 

 diameter, and lined with a few fresh green leaves, upon which 

 the eggs were laid. Whether the green leaves are renewed from 

 time to time, or not, I cannot tell. Other Eagles, Haliaetus leu- 

 corhyphus and Aquila fulvescens, also place fresh green leaves in 

 their nests*. The eggs were usually two in number ; but twice I 

 found only one. Two were white, unmarked, but all the others 

 sparingly blotched and spotted with light reddish-brown, 

 sometimes intermixed with blotches of light reddish-grey. The 

 largest egg measures 2'958 in. by 2*167 in., and the smallest 

 2*583 in. by 2*041 . I have a pair of eggs out of the same nest — 

 one plain white, the other well marked. 



35. LiMNAETus CRisTATELLUS. I shot onc of thesc fine birds 

 off the top of a blast-furnace, at the abandoned Ramgurgh iron- 

 works. 



48. PoLiORNis TEESA. I Only saw one of these birds, which 

 I shot between Almorah and Binsur. It appears to be very rare 

 in the hills. 



* [The Golden Eagle does so likewise; see ' Ootheca Wolleyana,' pp. 22, 

 25, and 38.— Ed.] 



