146 FALCONID^E. 



It lays two eggs, I think, as a rule, but single eggs are often 

 found much incubated. 



My friend, Captain Hutton, favoured ine with the following 

 notes : " This species is common at Mussoorie, and occurs also 

 during winter in the Doon ; at Mussoorie it is a permanent 

 resident, and most destructive to pigeons, fowls, and game ; its loud 

 shrill musical whistle may often be heard far up in the heavens 

 even when the bird itself is lost to sight. It breeds at about 5500 

 feet of elevation, constructing a thick basket-like nest of twigs and 

 small branches, placed on a lofty tree, often growing out of the 

 fissure of a rock overhanging a precipice, which is apt to turn the 

 head of any but a mountaineer, and to look into which reminds one 

 of the bottomless pit ! Nevertheless, we have on more than one 

 occasion contrived to rob the nest. One of these was found on the 

 5th of March and contained one egg, which was left for the 

 purpose of ascertaining whether the bird would lay another. A 

 few days afterwards, on finding no addition, a man ascended the 

 tree, which was of tolerably easy access, and the old bird making no 

 warlike demonstration, the prize was secured. On attempting to 

 clean it, however, it was found to contain a fully formed young 

 bird. On another occasion, we did not rob a nest so easily. It 

 was found on the 18th March, and contained two eggs, which were 

 left to hatch. On the 1st of April, the nest was again visited and 

 found to contain two young ones covered with a rufous-coloured 

 down ; on the 16th April, finding that one young one had fallen 

 from the nest, preparations were made for lowering a man down 

 the precipice to the root of the tree, which leaned ominously out of 

 a cleft in the rock overhanging an awful chasm. On reaching the 

 tree, the man began to ascend, but before he had reached the nest 

 one of the old birds made a dash at him and struck him sharply on 

 the shoulder, causing the blood to flow. Nothing daunted, the 

 man proceeded on his perilous course, under cover of one or two 

 shots from above to scare the old birds away, but without the 

 desired effect, for on the man's arrival at the nest another charge 

 was made by the female, who struck the poor fellow on the bead 

 and again caused blood to flow, but luckily the man's greasy linen 

 skull-cap became firmly fixed upon the talons of the bird, which 

 scared her to such a degree that, uttering a loud scream of alarm, 

 she sailed away, rapidly followed by her mate, and the young one 

 was then brought in safety from the nest. It was nearly half 

 fledged, with small slaty-coloured feathers, and grew to maturity 

 in a large roomy cage, when it was set at liberty, and after hanging 

 about the place to be fed for several days, finally took unto itself 

 the wings of the morning and disappeared. These birds some- 

 times breed in the same nest for two or three years, and apparently 

 only abandon it when it becomes old and rotten, when they select 

 another tree whereon to construct a new habitation at no great 

 distance from the other." 



Captain Unwin found two nests of this species in the Agrore 

 Valley : one, placed in a comparatively small cheer tree, was made 



