CASAKCA FERRUGINKA 14.i 



it more likely that they are carried on the backs of tlie old birds, 

 his argument is that the t'eet are not adapted to grasping ; but if 

 a strong adult bird could not grasp with sufficient strength to 

 hold up a nestling, how could the same nestling have sufficient 

 grasping-power to maintain its position on the old bird's back 

 during flight? 



Occasionally it breeds in very remarkal^le situations. Hume 

 says that they " lay in holes in trees and even fallen logs, and in 

 deserted nests of birds of prey." Tristram found it breeding in 

 a cliff in Northern Galilee amongst griffon vultures in May, and 

 in the Eastern Atlas associating with tlie raven, the black kite, 

 and the Egyptian vulture. 



'■ So too, in Ladakh, its nests have been found associated with 

 one of the Thibetan raven." 



He also quotes Prjevalsky as follows : — ■ 



' They build in holes and clefts in the ground, and sometimes 

 even in the fire-places of the villages deserted by the Moguls, in the 

 latter places the females, while hatching, get almost black with soot." 



Betham gives a most interesting account of two nests taken 

 by Captain Shuttleworth in Chinese Turkestan in April, 1909, both 

 placed in holes in big trees. Two curious points about the second 

 find were that on the same tree was a merlin's nest, and secondly 

 that the tree itself was eight miles from the nearest water. This 

 latter fact would seem to make the carriage of the young by their 

 parents an absolute necessity. 



Then again, Messrs. Elwes and Buckley say that in the 

 Dobrudscha the bird sometimes lays its eggs in a hole in the centre 

 of the cornfield, where naturally they are not easy to find. 



The nest itself seems to be much like that of the common 

 sheldrake, a mass of twigs, etc., lined with down ; sometimes, 

 however, it is found to consist almost entirely of down and 

 feathers, and altogether it appears to be less bulky and to have 

 few materials other than those just mentioned. Strange to say, 

 I can find no record anywhere of the depth of hole most often 

 resorted to for nesting purposes, but, from what has been written, 

 it would seem to matter little to the bird how deep or shallow 

 it was, provided the situation proved convenient. 



