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No. 29. Aquila Fulvescens. Gray. 
Tae Inpran Tawny HAcue. 
This species breeds in different parts of upper India, from 
the middle of November to the middle of June, but the great 
majority I think, lay in January. Out of one hundred and 
fifty-nine eggs of which I have a record, eighty-three were 
taken in January, thirty-eight in December, twenty-eight 
in February, the rest in November, March, April and June. 
Only one in this latter month, and none at all in May. The 
very hot dry weather puts a stop to the laying of most species. 
The nest is always, as far as my experience goes, placed on 
trees. I have never met with one placed on rocky ledges, 
although I have found them on trees at the foot of, or near to 
precipices, which contained apparently most “ eligible sites.” 
They build a large flat nest of sticks between two and three 
and a half feet in diameter, and from four inches to one foot in 
thickness, according to situation. The nests are generally lined 
with green leaves, sometimes with straw or grass intermingled 
with a few feathers, and sometimes have no lining at all. They 
are generally placed at the very top of the tree, and though I 
have found them occasionally on Peepul and Tamarind trees, 
the great majority were on moderate sized, but dense, Babool 
trees, standing apart in the midst of fields or low jungles. 
The normal number of eggs seems to be two, but it is by 
no means uncommon to find three. The eggs of this species 
appear to me, to vary prodigiously in size and shape; but it is 
not improbable, as already remarked, when treating of Gyps 
Bengalensis, that this excessive apparent variation, is due to the 
enormous series I have before me. I have taken more than a 
hundred of this bird’s eggs myself, and from first to last, have 
had more than double this number sent me by other observers. 
Normally this bird’s egg is a somewhat broad oval, slightly 
pointed towards one end, and answering both in size and shape 
very well to Dr. Bree’s figure of the Tawny Eagle’s egg ; very 
often, however, the eggs are somewhat smaller than this, and 
occasionally a great deal larger; some are very long and 
pointed. A pair which I took in the Goorgaon district, (shoot- 
ing the old bird) are fully as broad as the egg in Bree’s figure, 
and as long as his figure of the Lammergeyer’s egg; so that 
they appear a long and narrow egg; the cubic contents of 
these must be fully twice that of some of the smaller speci- 
mens; they each contained a fully developed chick, ready to 
hatch off. A few of the eggs are nearly spherical, but the 
broad oval greatly predominates. The ground colour of the 
