92 
is brought up. The normal number of the eggs is four, but I have 
found the female sitting on only three. Two nests, each containing 
five eggs, have been reported to me, butthese are very exceptional. 
The eggs vary somewhat in shape; but are generally, I think, 
much like those of a common hen, though perhaps slightly 
narrower. In colour, they vary from very pale yellowish brown, 
with just a few reddish brown specks, to a nearly uniform dark 
brownish red, obscurely mottled and blotched with a somewhat 
purer and darker red; typically they may be said to have a reddish 
white ground, so thickly freckled and speckled with dull brownish 
red, as to have but little of the ground colour visible. Often, 
they have a sort of ring of more or less feeble blotches near the 
large end; and at times, a zone of rather higher colour than 
the rest of the egg, near the middle. The eggs are normally 
a long oval; and with the exception of shape, which is invaria- 
bly less round than those of that species, the eggs of the 
Toorumtee are perfect miniatures of the Jugger’s. As far as 
colouring goes, every egg of the one in my collection, can be 
matched by some one of the other I possess. In size and colour- 
ing, they remind us nota little of the eggs of the Merlin, but, as 
a rule, they are somewhat narrower than these, and a greater num- 
ber of them belong to the dingy, yellowish brown, Falcon type, 
and fewer to the deep red type. . 
In length, they vary from 1-6, to 1°75, and in breadth, from 
1:25, to 1:32, but the average of 32 eggs measured was 1°68, 
by 1:27. 
Me William Blewitt mentions taking several nests of this 
bird, which at Hansie is known as the oo/ce (a name elsewhere 
applied to the Shaheen,) in March, April, and May. The nests 
were placed on Peepul and Jhand trees, at heights of from 10 to 
24 feet from the ground ; were most of them scantily and loose- 
ly, but one or two densely and compactly, constructed of fine 
Babool (A. Arabica) and other twigs, lined with fine straw, fea- 
thers, and a few rags; and measured from 8 to 10 inches in 
diameter, with a cavity from 2 to 3 inches deep. None con- 
tained more than four, and one had only three much incubated 
egos. 
Mr. R. Thompson communicates the following note in re- 
gard to this species. 
“‘T do not remember ever seeing the Toorumtee circling aloft 
or sailing like Fulco Perigrinator or Jugger. It invariably flies 
rapidly, in a direct horizontal line, and with very frequent flap- 
pings of its wings. The young birds are out of the nest in 
June; in Gurhwal I have never seen one earlier. The Too- 
rumtee is very courageous, as remarked by Jerdon, but it does 
