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together passing along the side of the hills below Mussoorie 
for some distance, and then returning again together in like 
manner; but what the object can be I cannot make out, for 
there is no fishing-ground along that route. They build in 
lofty trees, on the banks of the larger Dhoon streams, laying 
one or two, large, white eggs. The nest, I have described in 
the J. A. 8. of Bengal. ‘The cry of this bird is loud and harsh, 
and somewhat querulous ; it may be heard at a great distance, 
might almost be termed par excellence, ‘ the region of birds nests,’ so numer- 
ous are these during the breeding season of the summer months. 
With respect to Hawks and Eagles, although the nests of many species are 
not difficult to discover, yet, being found, it is often entirely impossible to 
gain access to them. Some of these are built in lofty trees, overhanging the 
sides of precipices, which make one shudder to look into the yawning depth 
below ; such is generally the spot selected by that beautiful Hawk, the 
Spizaetus Nipalensis, while the Vulture Eagle, selects a ledge of rock, to 
which one can only descend by a rope, and with a strong chance of being 
hurled into eternity, should the old birds be any where near at hand ; never- 
theless I have succeeded in robbing both these nests. In the Dehra Dhoon 
the nests of Haliaetus Leucoryphus and of various Vuitures are far from 
uncommon. 
Another important point is likewise to be considered in the selection of 
breeding localities, and one I imagine which rarely enters into the head of 
the collector, for as with molluscous animals, limestone tracts are ever more 
productive than others, so precisely is it with the feathered tribes; the 
snail must have an abundant supply of lime, or it cannot properly secrete its 
calcareous shell, and without calcareous matter, the bird would be equally 
unable to secrete the shell, which encloses and protects the egg, a fact which 
may often be seen in the farm-yard, where Hens that have been unable 
to procure a sufficient supply of lime, with their food, will lay their eggs 
without a shell and surrounded only by a strong transparent membrane. 
It is likewise this craving for lime, and salt, that prompts domestic Pigeons 
to pick the mortar out of walls. 
A limestone formation will consequently always be found to be more 
densely populated by the feathered tribes, than regions of siliceous rocks. 
The Falcon tribe are rendered somewhat more independent in this respect, 
because the smaller bones of animals which constitute their prey, furnish 
abundant material for the construction of the egg shell. 
Now it so happens that the lower Terai region, of the southern range 
between the Jumma and the Ganges, is just such a district as birds of the 
soft-billed kind especially. delight in, for the rock formation consists chiefly 
of large beds and shattered blocks of limestone, from the crevices and hollows 
of which, springs up a dense jungle of brushwood, sometimes interspersed 
with forest trees, at other times without them; the locality is moreover 
well watered by numerous rilis and streams of pure fresh water, along the 
mossy margins of which, are found the nests of many species that delight 
to build in such situations, while as the streams increase in size, as they 
debouche from the dark glens and ravines, to enter upon and fertilize the 
Dhoon, the deepening banks of silt will often furnish nests of the various 
species of King-fishers, which deposit their eggs in holes, bored in the 
crumbling banks above the water line.” 
