FALCO. 193 



normal number of the eggs is four ; but I have found the female 

 sitting on only three. Two nests, each containing five eggs, have 

 been reported to me ; but these are very exceptional. 



Mr. William Blewitt mentions taking several nests of this bird, 

 which at Jlansie is known as the Koohee (a name elsewhere applied 

 to the Shaheen), in March, April, and May. The nests were 

 placed on peepul and jhand trees, at heights of from 10 to 24 feet 

 from the ground ; most of them were scantily and loosely, but one 

 or two densely and compactly, constructed of fine babool and other 

 twigs, lined with fine straw, feathers, and a few rags, and 

 measured from 8 to 10 inches in diameter, with a cavity from 2 to 

 3 inches deep. None contained more than four, and one had only 

 three, much incubated, eggs. 



The late Mr. Anderson remarked that it " breeds generally in 

 February and March. The few nests discovered by me, I attribute 

 solely to the fuss made by these little Falcons, as they are most 

 pugnacious and noisy during the breeding-season, actually attacking 

 Kites and Crows at a considerable distance from the tree they 

 have monopolized. On two occasions my tent happened to be 

 pitched in a mango-tope, where a pair of Toorumtees were busy 

 building, and I found them a perfect nuisance, as they were 

 incessantly darting out and driving away all manner of imaginary 

 enemies. The nest is generally placed in a leafy clump near 

 the top of a tree (by preference the mango), and it is by no means 

 easy of detection. Four is the usual complement of eggs they lay ; 

 and in size and appearance some in my collection would easily do 

 duty for those of Falco subbuteo as figured by Hewitson. On 

 the whole, there appears to be the same relation between the eggs 

 of this bird and of the Jugger Falcon, as there is between the eggs 

 of the Peregrine and the Kestrel. 



" Mr. Hume states that he has as yet obtained no egg earlier 

 than the 15th of February. It is, indeed, strange that the only 

 three nests taken by me were all before that date, one of them 

 actually as early as the 9th of January last. One of these 

 deserves special notice. I was returning home late on the evening 

 of the 4th of February last, when my a f tention was attracted by 

 the familiar cry of one of these birds, which I found was attacking 

 a common Kite in the most furious manner, at a considerable 

 height in the air. The only tree for a mile round was a gigantic 

 solitary mango ; and no sooner had I sent my man up the tree, 

 than the little Falcon flew straight to her nest, quite prepared to 

 hold her ground. The nest contained two fresh eggs ; but one of 

 them had a largish hole on one side, exactly like what would be 

 made by the beak of a bird ; and through this aperture I blew the 

 specimen. I imagine the Toorumtee had done this from anger, 

 when it saw that the nest was about to be robbed." 



Colonel E. A. Butler writes : " I found a nest of the Eed- 

 headed Merlin near Deesa on the 23rd March, containing four 

 young birds about three weeks old, so that the eggs must have 

 been laid about the end of the first week in February. The nest 



TOL. III. 13 



