182 



near the hatching point, the bird sits excessively close ; I have 

 found it impossible to drive it off: by throwing stones, and on one 

 occasion the female only flew when my hand was actually on the 

 nest, though she had been struck pretty sharply by several of the 

 stones. The male bird assists in building, and is more wary than 

 the female. 



" On one occasion I noticed a male bird with a stick in its claws 

 fly into a tree and return without it. I went up to the place, and 

 noticed the commencement of the nest ; while I was standing there 

 the male bird returned with another twig, but catching sight of me 

 from the distance, he turned off and went into another tree some 

 distance off, and nothing would induce him to como near the place 

 till T was well away, though the female kept going and coming all 

 the time." 



Mr. W. Blewitt says : " We found one nest of this species near 

 Hansie on the 16th June, which contained a single fresh egg. The 

 nest was placed on a neein-tree, at the height of about 16 feet 

 from, the ground, and was slightly built of keekur and zizyphus 

 twigs and scantily lined with reed-grass. It measured 10 inches 

 in diameter and 4 in depth." 



In another letter, also from Hansie, he remarks : " We got 

 two nests of the Honey-Buzzard on the 5th and 10th July out of 

 sheeshum-trees on the canal-banks. One contained a single, fresh, 

 the other a solitary fully incubated, egg. The nests were respec- 

 tively about 15 and 20 feet from the ground, were constructed of 

 keekur and sheeshum twigs, and were lined with leaves." 



Mr. R. Thompson, writing from Gurhwal, remarks that " the 

 Honey-Buzzard breeds from April to June, building its circular 

 pan-shaped nest (which no little resembles that of Spizaetus lim- 

 naetus) in large trees, in open forest country." 



Messrs. Davidson and Weuden write from the Deccan : "Rarish 

 about Sholapoor. Saw a pair breeding on the 6th February. They 

 were very noisy." 



Normally, the shape of the eggs of this species is nearly spherical, 

 and even the most aberrant are very broad ovals. Typically, they 

 are very highly coloured eggs, and remind one much of the eggs 

 of the European Honey-Buzzard. The ground-colour varies from 

 white or pinkish-white to huffy-yellow, and the markings from 

 reddish brown to intense blood-red. In one, the markings are 

 a dingy, though deep, purple. . In another, the whole egg is buff- 

 brown, faintly but thickly mottled and clouded with yello\vi,sh 

 brown. Another egg, with a reddish-brown ground, is entirely 

 capped and thickly mottled over the whole of the rest of the sur- 

 face with a very dull but deep cinnamon-red, reminding one forcibly 

 of some of the richest-coloured eggs of the Neophron. As a rule, 

 these eggs are glossless, but one or two have a trace of gloss about 

 them. The lining, or rather the colour of the egg-shell, when held 

 up against the light, varies from greenish white to dingy yellowish 

 green. 



In size the eggs vary from 1*82 to 2-22 inches in length, and 

 from 1-55 to T85 inch in breadth; but the average of ten eggs 

 measured was 2-03 by 1*72 inch. 



