3 
flat platform, more often oval or oblong than circular, chiefly 
composed of sticks, varying from one inch to half an inch in 
diameter, loosely put together, but still from their aggregate 
weight and the manner in which they interlace, forming a very 
solid structure. They always have a lining towards the centre, 
often of numerous strips, from 6 to 10 inches long and from 1 to 3 
broad, of the fan leaves of the-Toddy palm, (Borassus Plabelli- 
formis), but not uncommonly of Peepul, Banyan or Neem 
(Melia Azedirukhta) leaves, or of slender twigs of these trees 
to which the leaves are attached. 
The nest varies from 24 to 4 feet in length and breadth and 
is often more than a foot in thickness. ‘Though I have no 
positive proof of it, native hunters assure me that, when not 
molested, they breed year after year during long periods in the 
same nest, and the materials of one nest that I demolished, 
weighed over 8 Indian maunds (over 6 hundred weight) and proved 
to have at least 3 distinct layers and to have been used many 
times. As however J know that this bird sometimes, (like Ketupa 
Ceylonensis, vide infra) takes possession of old nests of Haliwtus 
Leucoryphus (of which bird there were several pairs in the 
neighbourhood) I cannot be certain, that these vultures had 
really, as the nest seemed to indicate and the villagers declared, 
bred in this same nest during many successive seasons. 
They lay a single egg; I have heard it asserted that they 
sometimes lay two, but of the numbers of nests that I have per- 
sonally examined, I never found one that contained more than 
a single eg or a single young one, and in upper India, I feel 
quite sure that one isthe normal number. 
The eggs, when first laid, are usually a nearly unsullied pale 
greenish white, but as incubation proceeds, they become greatly 
stained and discolored by the droppings of the parent bird. I 
have taken only one egg at all marked, and this showed numerous 
every faint dingy purplish streaks and spots, but possibly higher 
coloured examples may occur. 
In shape, the eggs vary from rather long ovals to nearly 
spheres; but the normal type I consider to be a round oyal. 
The texture is moderately fine, the shell very strong and as 
a rule glossless, but I have found eggs with a faint gloss. 
The egg-lining is green. 
The eggs vary in size from 3°5 to 32 in length, and from 2°8 
to 2°45 in breadth: of 24 eggs measured, the average length and 
breadth was 3°34 and 2°6. 
Mr. W. Blewitt tells me that, besides the nest already 
alluded to, he found no less than 7 nests of this Vulture, in the 
neighbourhood of Hansee, between the 6th and 24th March ; 
