18 
than that of the eggs of either Indicus, Fulvescens, Bengalensis, 
or Calvus. The ground colour is the usual greenish or greyish 
white of all the true vultures. The one ege is unspotted, the 
other is richly blotched and mottled, chiefly towards the small 
end, with brownish red. ‘The eges measure* 3°98 x 2°85, and 
378 X 2°8. I have always myself been too late to get the 
eggs, though I have often seen the empty nests, and I therefore 
give Captain Cock’s interesting account of the taking of the 
two eggs I have above described. 
“In April, 1867, 1 was at a pic-nic in the Kumara slate 
quarries (near Dhurmsala), and there noticed a nest of Gyps 
Fulvus ; the old bird was sitting at the time; the nest was a 
mass of sticks and dirt, placed on a shelf of rock under an 
overhanging precipice. Some idea of the magnitude of the 
precipice I can give you. When standing at the foot I could not 
nearly fling a stone up to where the nest was, and yet it was 
more than half way down from the top. I got long ropes 
and hill-men, and a venturous plain’s-man ! (hill-men would not 
look at it) went over. After dangling in mid air for some 
time, he contrived to get hold of a creeper with his toes, and 
by means of that, pulled himself on to the ledge; then creeping 
along the ledge, he got to the nest, and went quite close to 
it ; the vulture at last flew off, leaving a young one covered with 
dingy yellow down, and looking like a huge gosling. I left the 
young one, and took measures for securing the eggs in 1868. On 
the 25th February, I went out, and saw that this year there were 
two nests on the ledge. I then on the 28th February, got long 
ropes reaching from the top of the precipice to the bottom, and 
with the aid of a long bamboo with a bag at the end, we fished 
the eggs out of the nests; a man having been pulled up from 
below for that purpose. There was only one egg in each nest.” 
Captain Cock found the birds breeding earlier in 1869 than 
in the previous year. On the 20th February he found 4 nests, 
one had an egg, in the other three the old birds were sitting 
close. Next day, taking ropes and men, he visited the nests. 
In No. 1, the egg had_ hatched off, No. 2 contained a young 
one of some 5 or 6 days old, and No. 4 one fully a week old, 
No. 3 alone contained an egg, and that even would have 
hatched off, probably in another day, and contained a live 
fully-formed chick. 
It seems, even to myself, a piece of presumption on my part 
to say so, but it is nevertheless, I believe, an incontestible tact, 
that both Mr. Blyth and Dr. Jerdon have erred in giving us 
only 3 Indian species of Gyps instead of 4, as there really are. 
* A third egg since obtained in Kotegurh measured 3:83 % 2°85. 
