144 FALCONID^. 



ledge in the face of a precipitous cliff, consisted entirely of a large 

 quantity of small branches of trees which had been the accumu- 

 lation of years, as the birds invariably return to the same place to 

 build ; as a lining to this uncouth nest were added innumerable 

 green leaves. In this same nest I had often had the eggs de- 

 stroyed by throwing stones into it from the top, and (they played 

 such havoc in my poultry-yard !) several times the young ones had 

 been pushed over the cliff with a long bamboo, in hopes of the 

 parent birds leaving the neighbourhood, which, however, they still 

 continue to frequent. 



" The eggs are very large and thick-shelled, of a whitish colour, 

 with a few indistinct light-brown marks, almost entirely confined 

 to the largest end. Notwithstanding every care one egg was 

 knocked against the rock while halfway up, and of course broken. 

 This was unfortunate, as there were only two, this bird novel- 

 laying more, and sometimes only one. When I reached the cliff 

 the Eagle instantly covered the eggs with leaves, and darted from 

 the nest in a straight line, and after having flown to some dis- 

 tance made two or three wide circles in the air and disappeared. 

 In about half an hour it returned and soared above and beneath 

 me, but never attempted to prevent my depriving it of its eggs. 

 These eggs were taken in the month of December. These Eagles 

 only breed once a year, unless deprived of their eggs or young, in 

 which case they will lay again." 



I have now seen a good many eggs of this species. All I have 

 seen were moderately broad ovals, varying slightly in size and in 

 the comparative length of the minor axis. Some are unspotted, 

 some are more or less faintly blotched, streaked, or spotted with 

 pale yellowish or reddish brown, while others, as Mr. Brooks cor- 

 rectly remarks, " are sparingly blotched and spotted with bright 

 reddish brown, sometimes intermixed with blotches of light 

 reddish grey." 



I have never seen a richly-coloured egg of this species. The 

 ground-colour is that of all Eagles of this type a pale greyish or 

 bluish white, often becoming, during the course of incubation, 

 much soiled and discoloured. 



In size they vary from 2'56 to 3 inches in length, and from 1-93 

 to 2'22 inches in breadth ; but the average of twenty eggs was 

 278 by 2-1. 



Nisaetus pennatus (G-mel.). The Booted Eagle. 



Aquila pennata (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 63. 



Hieraetus pennatus (Gm.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 31. 



I have never myself found or seen a nest of the Booted Eagle. 



My collector, Mr. Theobald, found a nest of N. pennatus on the 

 21st February, 1869, at Hurroor, in the district of Salem, and 

 from it shot a couple of old brown birds. "The nest," he says, 

 "was on the branch of a high banyan tree (Ficus indica), about 40 



