97 
and the Dhoon; natives informed me that they had seen its 
nest in the Salt Range of the Punjaub near Pind Dadun Khan. 
In the Himalayahs, it almost invariably breeds on rocky ledges, 
or small holes, in cliffs. I know no well recorded instance of 
its nest having been found on trees in India. “The nest is 
round, oblong, or semicircular, according to the shape of the 
site chosen, and is a thicker or thinner platform from 12 to 20 
inches in diameter and 2 to 6 in thickness, made of small twigs, 
in which grass roots, rags and, as Mr. R. Thompson informs 
me, at times strips of cloth, a yard and a half in length, are in- 
eorporated, and serve as lining. 
The eggs are normally five in number, I believe, but two nests 
taken near Kotegurh, contained only four each, in both eases, 
considerably incubated. The eggs resemble those of the preced- 
ing species, but are slightly broader, and less uniform in their 
colour. In shape, they are broad ovals, more or less pointed or 
compressed towards one end. ‘The ground colour is a darker 
or lighter brick or blood red, blotched, or mottled and freckled 
with a deeper shade of the same colour, the blotches being in 
some eges strongly defined, and well marked, and the whole tint 
of the egg being, in one specimen that I have seen, browner and 
yellower than 1 have above described. The eggs are glossless, 
and the shell though fine and compact, has the sort of chalky 
texture, noticed in the eggs of £. Jugger and L. Chiquera. The 
egos vary from 1°63 to 1:75 in length, and from 1:28 to 1°35 in 
breadth, the average of eight eggs measured, being 1°68 by 1:31. 
Although I have no record of the birds actually breeding in 
the plains, I shot a female in the Htawah district, late in March, 
which was one of a pair, that I saw frequenting a cleft in the clay 
cliffs of the Chumbul, near Oodee. The oviduct of this bird 
contained a white egg, the size of a Dove’s, and when, on seeing 
this, | next day examined the cleft, I found that it contained a 
new, nearly finished nest, such as a Kestrel would build. The 
native fowlers, however, by no means despicable observers, 
assured me positively that this bird never breeds in the district, 
so I hardly know what to think; especially as on another 
occasion (11th February, 1867) L shot a young male at the mouth 
of a similar cleft in the clay cliffs of the Jumna, below Sheregurh, 
in which was a new nest, apparently ready to lay in. Perhaps 
these birds search clefts like these for the young of other birds, 
but the stomachs of those I have killed, have generally contained 
insects, bees, black ants, beetles, and the like. 
Captain Hutton remarks (in Hpist.) “The Kestrel is very 
common, both in the outer hills and the Doon; at Mussoorie 
I have known it to breed upon a lofty ledge of rocks above the 
Superintendent’s oftices.”’ . 
