1 58 



The nest was described to me as being a large structure of sticks 

 placed in the fork of a tree. 



" Layard, who was very fortunate in finding the nests of rare 

 birds, remarks that ' it builds in the recesses of the forest on lofty 

 trees. The structure is a mass of sticks piled together and added 

 to year by year. The eggs, generally two in number, are 3 inches 

 in length by 2 in diameter, of a dirty chalk- white, minutely freckled 

 at the obtuse end with black dots.' " 



Butastur teesa (Frankl.). The White-eyed Buzzard-Eaylc. 



Poliornis teesa (Frankl.), Jeril. B. Ind. i, p. 92 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. $ E. no. 48. 



The White-eyed Buzzard-Eagle lays usually in Upper India 

 during April. A few nests may be found during the latter half 

 of March and the early part of May ; but these are exceptions. 



They prepare their nests, as a rule, some considerable time before 

 they lay; a nest examined, and ultimately taken, in Etawah, was 

 completed twenty-four days before the first egg was laid. 



They make their own nests (a new one, as far as my experience 

 goes) each season never, I believe, appropriating those of other 

 species ; but they will, at times, pull these to pieces for materials. 

 The nest is usually placed in a fork pretty high up in some thickish 

 foliaged tree mangos, in some localities at any rate, being decidedly 

 their favourites. I have found a nest in a solitary tree ; but more 

 commonly they choose one of the outer trees of some small clump 

 or grove. 



The nest is a loose structure of twigs and sticks, very much like 

 a Crow's, and without any lining. Normally they lay three eggs ; 

 but I have once found four, and on several occasions have taken 

 nests containing only two, both fully incubated. 



These birds are much attached to their nests, and hang about 

 them for many days after they have been robbed, and at times will 

 lay in them a second time. On the llth April, 1867, I took a 

 single perfectly fresh egg out of a nest, which a few days before 

 had been cleared by Mr. Brooks. 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding 

 in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt 

 Range : "Lays in the second week of April. Eggs, four only ; 

 shape varies from ovate pyriforni to blunt ovato-pyriform ; size, 

 from 1*80 to 1*93 inch in length and l'50in breadth ; colour, pure 

 greyish or plumbeous white. Nest, small, of twigs, in trees near 

 cultivation." 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes from Saharunpoor : " This 

 bird breeds in May, making a small rudely-constructed nest of 

 twigs and sticks in the fork of a tree about 25 feet from the ground, 

 and without lining of any sort; the eggs are hatched in the 

 beginning of June ; they are generally three in number, but I 

 have never seen more than two young ones in a nest. 



