152 FALCONIDA'. 



He adds : " Breeds in the Patla Doon, and all along the lower open 

 forests. During the pairing-season, utters a loud and plaintive cry, 

 usually when the pair are mounted high in the air, when they may 

 be pbserved tumbling about and darting at each other in a most 

 remarkable manner." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote the following note : " The 

 eggs of the Short-toed Eagle are seldom procured, owing to their 

 being late breeders February to April, by which time the camping 

 season is generally over ; and I need hardly observe that eggs of 

 this bird that are collected by the natives are of no value. I have 

 only taken two nests myself during a residence of several years in 

 this part of the country ; and, strange to say, my friend Mr. Bryson 

 was present on both occasions. The first nest above referred to 

 was taken in the Euttehgurh district, and has been described in 

 Mr. Dresser's magnificent work (' Birds of Europe,' pt. xxix. p. 9) 

 as follows : ' On the 10th March last (1873), I was one of a 

 party engaged in doing a little miscellaneous shooting in a belt of 

 Dhak jungle, when my friend Mr. Bryson drew my attention to an 

 Eagle that had just flown off her nest. The tree selected, if such 

 it can be called, though the tallest in the jungle we were shooting 

 in, was only an overgrown thin sapling, and scarcely strong enough 

 to bear the weight of my climber. The nest contained one egg, 

 and although there was no doubt as to the ownership of it, I was 

 anxious to secure one of the parent birds. We accordingly withdrew 

 the beaters for half an hour to allow her to return, which she did, 

 but again sailed off the nest before we got within a hundred yards. 

 A second and third attempt proved equally unsuccessful, notwith- 

 standing we all (three of us) approached the tree under cover of 

 the brushwood from different directions. Our movements, more- 

 over, were not heard, as owing to a fall of rain that very morning, 

 we could walk about the jungle without making the slightest noise. 

 On my eventually sending up a man to bring down the egg, the 

 Eagle hovered overhead sufficiently close to decide identification, 

 though keeping well out of shooting-range. The nest was small, 

 and in shape, size, and position very similar to that of the Wokab 

 (Aquila vindhiana, Franklin) ; but I have never before experienced 

 such wariness on the part of any bird while incubating. Only the 

 other day a pair of Wokabs attacked my climber in the most 

 desperate manner while he was examining their nest, which con- 

 tained only a pair of tolerably well incubated eggs ; and as to 

 Bonelli's Eagle, Lithofalco chiquera, Micronisus badius, &c., &c., 

 they rarely move till the hand is on the nest. The whole jungle 

 was in full blossom, and the nest itself was actually surrounded 

 with clusters of red and black flowers. The egg has an insignifi- 

 cant mean appearance, quite characteristic of the bird itself; it 

 measures 2*7 by 2*1, and has of course no indication of any colour- 

 ing matter, but it is a good deal soiled from the green leaves which 

 formed the inner lining of the nest ; the inside membrane of the 

 egg is sap green/ 



" My second nest was also taken in the same kind of scrub, from 



