212 
this bird, which is the most beautiful Hawk of the kind we have. 
He is great at poultry, when living in the vicinity of a station. 
I have caught them regularly with the vertical net. On an 
Oak tree on the Ayarpatta hill, a pair bred this year, the result, 
two young ones. I have not seen their eggs. ‘The notes of 
this bird are similar to those of S. Ca/igatus. 
I once saw one fly at some wild Kalij Pheasants. The difference 
in habits between this bird and S. Cadigatus is this. The one is 
generally confined to the deep wooded hills ascending far into 
the interior of the Himalayas to almost the snow line, feeds 
much on Pheasants, Hares, Black Partridge, Monaul and Cheer 
Pheasants, and sometimes on young Deer. Whereas the other, 
S. Caligatus, is always found in the Bhabur forests and does not 
ascend the hills to any great height, and never is found in the 
interior of them. It chiefly lves on Pea-hens, Jungle Fowl, 
Partridge and Hares, and I have seen it kill and eat a full grown 
Civet Cat. I have also seen young birds watching and taking 
Rats near corn stacks in the Bhabur cultivated tracts, and more 
than once, have seen one dash into a tree in which a lot of Par- 
rakeets were assembled for the night, and take abird. I 
might sum up with the following : 
“ §. Nipalensis is a shy forest bird, not at all common except 
in suitable localities, and even there, more than a single couple 
are rarely seen. S. Ca/igatus isa eommon, bold bird, found in 
very many localities, and in the hills entirely confined to the 
very outside range of the Himalayas. I saw one the other day 
in South Mirzapore.” 
I subjoin exact measurements of four specimens, three 
young and one adult, and I would remark that one mat- 
ter which may have contributed to lead some observers to 
class young specimens of Vipalensis as Cirrhatus, is the exces- 
sive variability of dimensions in the former species. ‘To give 
an instance of this I would refer to the measurements of No. 3; 
here the inner toe claw is given as 2°63. Looking through the 
measurements, this struck me as excessive, and I had the very 
specimen brought out of the Museum. On measuring the claw 
in question on one foot, the original measurement proved correct, 
but the corresponding claw of the other foot measured only 2-1. 
Testing other figures, and the measurements of other specimens, 
all of which are still in my Museum, I found similar though not 
such striking diversities, in corresponding parts of the same 
birds. This may explain the extraordinary discrepancies in the 
following dimensions, all of which were carefully recorded at 
the time; I may mention that [ have a larger specimen than 
any of these; a female with the wing 19°5, but no measure- 
ments are recorded of this. 
