180 EALCONJILE. 



pairs all over the district, several accompanied with young. I also 

 found several nests then with nearly full-fledged young. 



" In June the birds again commenced to build, and the eggs 

 appear to have been laid as a rule during the last week of that 

 month. I was unluckily detained in a place where there are no 

 Kites for the fortnight from June 28th to July 10th, but I have 

 seen at least 25 nests, mostly with young, almost all along the sides 

 of a nullah on small babool-trees, 15 feet or so from the ground. 

 The eggs or young were almost invariably four, and the former 

 varied much. One nest contained three highly-coloured ones and 

 a nearly pure white one which might have passed for a miniature 

 egg of H. indus. Another nest contained two fresh eggs which 

 were exactly like small ones of A. nisus." 



Arid he subsequently added : " I wrote to ' Stray Feathers ' 

 about the way E. cceruleus has invaded the district, and its breeding 

 in the hot weather, and again in the rains (June and July); but now 

 I got a nest yesterday (September 2 1st) with a fresh egg, evidently 

 the produce of a pair whose nest 1 knew, and whose young were 

 sitting on an adjoining tree barely able to take care of themselves." 



And again he wrote with Mr. Wenden from the Deccan : 

 " Moderately common. A nest with three eggs taken on 10th July, 

 1875. It breeds abundantly in Caladgi District, some 50 miles 

 from Sholapoor, in December." 



In Ceylon, according to Colonel Legge, this Kite breeds from 

 December to March. 



Taking a large series of these eggs, they vary very much as those 

 of Neophron ginginianus do. Typically the ground-colour is a sort 

 of yellowish or brownish white, and the whole egg is so thickly 

 streaked, smeared, and clouded with brownish red of a duller or 

 brighter shade that but little of the ground-colour is visible, and 

 generally at one end or the other, usually the large end, the markings 

 are denser, confluent, and redder than elsewhere. In a certain 

 number of specimens the ground-colour is whiter, and on one half 

 of the egg the mottled blotches are thinner set, and show a good 

 deal of the ground through. I have one egg with one half, the 

 small end, densely blotched with blood-red, only here and there 

 brown, the other half pure spotless white. Again, I have one egg 

 entirely white, with only a zone of sparsely-set markings round 

 the middle. The shell is rather fine and smooth, the surface-pittings 

 are scarcely visible to the naked eye, but the eggs are quite gloss- 

 less. Held up against the light the shell, where free from blotches, 

 is a very pale yellowish-green. 



In shape the eggs are very uniform moderately broad ovals, often, 

 but not always, slightly pointed towards the small end. 



All the eggs are nearly the same size ; they vary from 1*42 to 

 1-68 inch in length, and from 1-14 to 1-27 inch in breadth ; but 

 the average of a large number is 1'53 by 1-21 inch. 



