Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology . 145 



as if unhurt, close along the face of the cliff; a hundred yards 

 further I saw a tremor; then in a moment it was clear that she 

 was in the death-struggle ; she began to sink, and an instant 

 after fell over and over on to a flat block of clay with almost 

 incredible violence. The dust flew up from where she fell as if 

 a shell had dropped there; but, as a specimen, the bird was 

 scarcely injured. 



We had scarcely secured the female, after the manner of 

 bird-stuffers, plugging nostrils and shot-holes, stuffing throat, 

 and smoothing feathers, when we heard a shrill creaking cry, 

 and saw the male coming straight for the nest with a bird 

 (which turned out to be a Turtur cambayensis) in his talons. 

 Coming to the nest, he seemed surprised to find it empty; he 

 took no notice whatsoever of us, nor did he apparently catch 

 sight of his mate stretched out with her white breast uppermost 

 on the decklike platform of our barge, but he straightway settled 

 himself down in the middle of the nest, and became entirely 

 invisible. Again tiny stones were thrown down ; and after 

 standing up, staring proudly round, and stalking to the edge, 

 where he was hailed with shouts, he flew off slowly, swooping 

 down to within twenty yards of where I sat, and the next 

 moment dropped stone dead with only a loose charge of No. 6 

 through him. He was much smaller than the female: she 

 measured 29 inches in length, nearly 70 in expanse, and weighed 

 close on 6 lbs. ; he was only 26 inches in length, 62 in expanse, 

 and about 4 lbs. in weight. 



We had now to get the eggs, if eggs there were, because as 

 yet we could only guess and surmise in regard to these. Just 

 above the recess the cliff bosomed out with a full swell for some 

 two or three feet, effectually preventing any one's looking down 

 into the nest from above, or, except by an accidental " cannon '^ 

 in the broad groove (such as my boatman had had the luck to 

 make at the very first shot), from even throwing anything down 

 into it. Above the swell the cliff was as nearly perpendicular 

 as might be ; and it really did seem as if getting into that nest 

 would be no easy matter. However, some six feet east of the 

 nest passed a sort of fault or crack, which traversed the cliff at 

 an angle of about 45° ; and down this, a stout rope round the 



N. S. VOL. V. L 



