202 VULTURID^E. 



In shape they vary a great deal, as indeed do those of all 

 the Vultures, but they seem to be normally rather long and 

 pointed ovals. 



The texture of the shell appears coarser than that of the eggs 

 of either G. indie us, G. fulvescens, P. benyalensis, or 0. calvus. 

 The ground-colour is the usual greenish or greyish white of all the 

 true Vultures. 



8ome are entirely devoid of markings, but fully two-thirds are 

 more or less blotched or streaked with brighter or duller shades of 

 red-brown, or with pale brown or olive-brown. Perhaps one in 

 ten are blotched all over, and two in ten have a considerable 

 amount of markings, confluent at one or other end. 



In size they vary from 3'58 to 4-08 inches in length, and from 

 2-38 to 3'1 inches in breadth. The average of twenty-five eggs 

 measured is 3-70 by 2*75 inches. 



Gyps indicus (Scop.). The Long-billed Vulture. 

 Gyps indicus (Scop.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 9 ; Hume, Cat. no. 4. 



Common as this Vulture is, I have only one note on its iiidifica- 

 tion. Mr. J. C. Parker writes : " On the banks of the beautiful 

 lake at Mogra, situated in the extreme N.E. corner of the 24 

 Pergunnahs, I discovered these birds breeding on the 20th January 

 of this year. The nests were all built on cotton-trees with one 

 exception, and this was on a peepul ; the latter was so large and 

 the foliage so dense, that I did not discover it until my second visit 

 to the lake on the llth February, when it had a young one just 

 hatched in it. In no instance did I observe more than one nest on 

 a tree, and the nests themselves were all of the same construction, 

 made up of boughs broken off fresh, the leaves still adhering but 

 of course quite withered. This circumstance gave the nests a very 

 snug and compact appearance, unlike those of Pseudogyps benyal- 

 ensis, which always have, as far as my experience goes, a consider- 

 able quantity of sticks worked into them. I only secured two eggs 

 on this occasion, dirty white in colour and measuring 3'60 by 2*90 

 and 3'20 by 2-60 ; the large egg hard-set, the other fresh. I shot 

 both the birds sitting on the nests. One proved to be a male, weighing 

 lb| Ibs. ; the other, of which the sex could not be satisfactorily 

 identified, weighed 14| Ibs. As the time left is but short after 

 marching some ten miles as the crow flies from the station at 

 Muddapore, E. B. By., to the lake, I was unable to beat up the 

 quarters of a colony of these birds, plainly visible across the lake 

 about two miles off, so had to defer that pleasure until my next 

 visit (llth February). The nests, six in number, were all on cotton- 

 trees, which at this season were naked and bare of leaves. Each 

 nest had a single young one in it a few days old. Doubtless 

 there were many more nests in the neighbourhood, but the trees are 

 all of very large size, so that unless separately examined the nests, 

 in spite of their size, are not easily seen." 



