SPIZAiTTUS. 147 



of dry sticks lined with a little grass, was about 2 feet wide and 

 was built up with sticks from the fork where its base rested to a 

 height of about 2| feet. It contained a single young bird covered 

 with white down, except the back and wings, which were thickly 

 set with short black-brown feathers. The other nest was also 

 placed in a cheer tree, but in a very large one, about 60 feet from 

 the ground. This was on the 6th May. This nest was placed on 

 a fork formed by several branches, was built up of sticks for nearly 

 3 feet, and was about 3 feet broad. It was lined with fine dried 

 grass, and hollowed out for about 5 or 6 inches in the centre. It 

 contained a single young bird about three or four days old, covered 

 with soft white down. 



Although I have, in former years, seen several of its nests, the 

 only specimens that I now possess of the eggs of this species are, 

 first, one taken near Mussoorie on the 8th March, which I owe to 

 Captain Hutton. In shape this is a broad regular oval, almost 

 symmetrical at both ends. The shell is coarse, dull and glossless ; 

 the ground-colour a slightly greenish white, spotted thinly with 

 reddish brown, and with numerous large blotches and streaks of 

 very pale inky purple. It measures 2-78 by 2-23 inches. 



Secondly, an egg procured in Bussahir on the 5th January. 

 This is a somewhat smaller egg than the preceding, measuring only 

 2-6 by 1/9 inch. It is a very perfect oval, has a greenish-white 

 ground, is very sparingly spotted and blotched, almost exclusively 

 towards the smaller end, with somewhat reddish brown, and 

 exhibits traces of two or three large, but very faint, purplish 

 clouds. When held up against the light, the shell is of a peculiarly 

 blackish-green tint. 



Spizaetus cirrhatus (Gm.). The Crested Hawk-Eagle. 



Limnaetus cristatellus (Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 71. 

 Spizaetus cirrhatus (Gm ), Hume, Rough Di'aft N. 8f E. no. 35. 



Of this species Mr. R. Thompson remarks : " The habitat of 

 the Crested Hawk-Eagle is in the uplands of Central India, 

 extending east along the Yindhian Eange as far as the southern 

 portion of the Mirzapoor District. How far south of Nagpoor and 

 west of the Puchmurrees it extends I cannot positively say ; but 

 here where I write from, the furthest southern corner of the 

 Satpoorahs, it is abundant. 



" Its uidification is similar to that of S. limnaetus ; it selects a 

 tall tree in some good game locality, builds a huge nest of coarse 

 twigs, and rears, as far as I have yet observed, only a single young 

 one, which is extremely noisy when being fed." 



Mr. G-. Vidal thus writes of the nidification of this Hawk-Eagle 

 in the South Konkan : " The Crested Hawk-Eagle breeds in this 

 district from December to April, January being the favourite 

 month. The nests are large and comparatively deep structures, 

 ]>oscly put together with the twigs hanging down untidily. They 



10* 



