SPILOBXIS. 153 



the top of a leafless peepul-tree, on the ferd March last (1875). 

 As is usual at this time of the year, the Dhak was abundantly in 

 flower, resembling a sheet of flame, the bright orange-red petals 

 contrasting brilliantly against the jet-black velvety calyx. 



" There were several old-looking nests on this tree, and from one 

 of them, not much larger than what a Heron would build, pro- 

 truded what looked like a dry stick, but what Mr. Bryson declared 

 was the tail of some bird that had died while incubating ! 



** After repeated attempts to induce the supposed bird to fly 

 some of our missiles actually alighting on the nest we sent up a 

 man, when off flapped a huge Eagle, displaying her white breast 

 and Owl-like head. The nest was composed of slight babool- 

 twigs, which look very black when dry, and hence our taking it for 

 an old one. It was small, certainly not more than two feet in dia- 

 meter, with a deep internal depression, so that the bird while incu- 

 bating could effect perfect concealment. 



" The egg, rather a well-shaped one, was a good deal incubated, 

 which naturally accounts for her sitting so close ; but it is strange 

 that she never again put in an appearance during the time, some 

 three hours, we remained in the jungle." 



The eggs of this bird are typically broad ovals with a slightly 

 pyrif orm tendency. They are of a pale, bluish-white colour ; bluer 

 than those of any other of our Indian species of Eagle, and are, to 

 judge from a very large series, invariably spotless ; moreover, they 

 seldom appear to be discoloured during the process of incubation 

 in the way most other Eagles' eggs are. In my whole collection 

 only one egg is in any way as small as that figured by Dr. Bree, 

 and more than one are all but as large as the egg of the Bald Eagle 

 figured on the same page. The colour of the shell in this species 

 when held up to the light is a peculiarly bright sap-green, very dif- 

 ferent from the deep green of Haliaetus madi, or the sea-green of 

 A. vindhiana. In size they vary from 2-65 to 3'15 inches in 

 length, and from 2-05 to 2-45 inches in breadth, but of twenty- 

 seven eggs measured, the average was 2-9 by 2-3. 



Spilornis cheela (Lath.). The Crested Serpent- Eagle. 



Spilornis cheela (Daud.}, Jerd. E. Ind. i, p. 77 ; Hume, Rough 2>raft 

 N. 8f E. no. 39. 



The Crested Serpent-Eagle, or, as it should perhaps more properly 

 be called, the Indian Harrier-Eagle, breeds throughout the Sub- 

 Himalayan ranges and regions, as far west at any rate as Kangra, 

 at heights of from 1500 to 5500 feet above the sea-level, laying in 

 March, April, and May. 



^ The nest is, I believe, always placed on trees in the immediate 

 vicinity of water, not at the top of the tree, but in some fork, as 

 Major Cock says, " like that of the common Kite." 



