GYPAETUS. 129 



pieces of cloth, rags, &c. I have frequently noticed parent birds 

 with only a single young one following them, and I am inclined to 

 think that they seldom rear more." 



Captain Huttoii teTTs us : " These birds are common in the hills, 

 from the Doon to the Snowy Range ; it breeds for several seasons 

 together in the same nest, sometimes giving the old nest a few 

 repairs. The spots selected at Mussoorie are of the most dangerous 

 description, and often perfectly inaccessible ; while even in the 

 least dangerous spots a man must be lowered down over the rock 

 by a stout rope to ascertain if there are either eggs or young ones 

 in the nest ; since the latter being generally placed in a wide fissure 

 in the perpendicular face of the cliff, it is not visible from above. 



" One nest was found on the 30th March, and a boy was lowered 

 down over the rock, but he found that the cleft and nest of two 

 years previously had been abandoned, and a new nest had been 

 made in another cleft lower down, in which was a young bird partially 

 fledged. Not being prepared to rob the nest at that time, the 

 nestling was left, especially as the old birds were near, and their 

 movements somewhat threatening. On the following morning, 

 the lad was again persuaded to descend, and as the old birds were 

 absent he secured his prize. The nest was built on a ledge of rock 

 within a cleft, and was composed of a thick bed of sticks, lined 

 with grass, old rags, bones, and what appeared to have been a por- 

 tion of a sheet. There was nothing in the shape of food, except 

 part of the wing of some large bird. 



" During the present year (1869) a nest was prepared in the 

 very same spot, and was finished on the 24th February ; on the 

 10th March it was visited, the old birds being at hand, but no eggs 

 were found. It was visited again once after this, and found to be 

 deserted. Towards the end of March another nest was visited, 

 but it had been blown off the rock in a gale of wind." 



It seems probable that two is the number of eggs most commonly 

 laid, and that three may, not very unfrequently, be found. 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes tells us that this Vulture is common on the 

 Khoja Amran Range in Afghanistan, where it breeds. 



The eggs, of which I have now seen more than a dozen, vary 

 much in shape, colour, and size ; but typically they are rather broad 

 ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end. As regards colour, I 

 have now seen every variety of Neophron's eggs reproduced in 

 those of this species. 



The texture of all the eggs I have is rather coarse, but the shells 

 are more compact and less chalky than those of the Neophron. 



The colour of the shell, when held up against the light, is pale 

 dingy yellow, as in Neophron, hereby further exhibiting the close 

 affinities of these two species, and separating them from the true 

 Vultures, all of whose shells, when seen against the light, are, to 

 the best of my belief, a more or less dark sea-green. 



None of the eggs had the slightest glcse . Of the first two 

 I examined, both had a nearly uniform pale salmon-buff ground, 

 here and there mottled paler. One was devoid of all markings : 



VOL. in. 9 



