414 Brig.-Gen. H. R. Ke\h&m— Field-Notes 



each side crowned by masses of precipitous rock, we disturbed 

 a pair of Egyptian Vultures from what was evidently a 

 nesting-place — a small cave in the face of a perpendicular 

 and much weather-worn cliff standing like a ruined castle on 

 the summit of the hillside. A scramble through the bushes 

 and we soon reached the foot of the cliff, the cave not twenty 

 feet above us ; moreover, there was an easy way round to 

 where a conveniently situated fig-tree offered a secure 

 fastening for our rope, up which I climbed, as owing to the 

 overhanging rock the place was more easily accessible from 

 below than from above. 



*' The nest was on the floor of the cave and consisted of an 

 untidy mass of sticks roughly lined with rags and bits of 

 rubbish and goats' hair, while scattered around were bones, 

 pieces of goat-skin, and other very evil-smelling remains. 



" In the nest lay one large egg, the bluish-white ground- 

 colour almost obscured by smudges and blotches of rich 

 chocolate-brown. 



" On the 25th April I took another egg from the same 

 nest, and yet a third on the 8th May, all similar in appearance. 

 ''The usual complement is two, a third is, I think, unusual.'* 

 The allied Indian species {Neophron ginginianus) I found 

 common among the Outer Himalayas, especially round 

 Dagshai, Sabathu, and the neighbouring hill-stations, at an 

 elevation of about 7000 feet; apparently it is more rare 

 at greater altitudes, anyhow during many expeditions into 

 the high snow-ranges at Kashmir and Baltistan I saw but 

 one, and that late in the summer. 



Within a few hundred yards of the Neophron's nest, the 

 finding of which I have described, but on the opposite side 

 of the ravine, we discovered the eyrie of a Bonelli's Eagle. 



It was very easy of access from the flat hilltop above, for 

 a descent of about ten feet landed us on the ledge of a rock 

 where the nest lay, in fact almost in the mass of sticks, which 

 was lined with green leaves. It contained two handsome 

 eggs, dull white with a few faiut reddish blotches. The 

 date was early in April, about the 8th or 10th. 



From his description I gather that both these nests were 



