222 TANTALID^E. 



and were composed of dry twigs of kurreel, chownker, plum, 

 tamarind, &c.; as many as twenty nests were found on one tree. 

 Preference seemed to be given to particular trees. The smallest 

 number of nests in any of the trees chosen to build on was five. 

 The nests are large, measuring as much as 2 feet in diameter, and 

 weighing from 5 to 6 Ibs. 



" From two to eight eggs were found in each nest. In some of 

 the nests eggs quite fresh were found, in others they were partly 

 incubated. Incubation seemed to have commenced only in the 

 nests where there were more than four eggs. Eggs may be obtained 

 from the middle of October to the middle of November. There are 

 no eggs now there at the middle of December, but the majority of 

 the young birds are not yet fully fledged, though some are able to 

 fly about the nest." 



Mr. Doig writing from the E. Narra, Sind, says : " I found a 

 large colony of these birds breeding in the end of Eebruary. The 

 nests, which seemed very small for the size of the bird, were rude 

 stick platforms built on decayed trees about 6 or 8 feet over water- 

 level. The nests all contained young birds very many nearly able to 



fly." 



And Colonel Butler remarks : " Mr. Doig sent me twenty- 

 three fresh eggs which he took in the Eastern Narra, Siud, on the 

 9th Nov. The birds were breeding in company with Plataka 

 leucorodia, but the two colonies were separate." 



Writing of Rajputana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes remarks : 

 "The Pelican-Ibis breeds in colonies during March and April." 



In Upper India, therefore, we may, I think, say that the majority 

 of the birds lay, earlier or later according to season, from the last 

 week of September to nearly the middle of November, that four is 

 the usual complement of eggs, though they sometimes lay as many 

 as eight, and that the young birds are mostly able to fly, though 

 they have not as yet left the nest, by the latter part of Eebruary. 



The following is Burgess's well-known account of their breeding 

 in the Dekhan. He says : " In another village, about ten miles 

 from the Godavery River, where there are a great number of large 

 banian trees both outside and inside the walls, I found a community 

 of these birds, which had built their nests on them, probably to the 

 number of fifty. 



" The trees inside the walls were as thickly covered with nests 

 as those outside, and the birds, which appeared docile and tame, 

 did not mind the noise of the people passing beneath them. When 

 I visited the village, the young birds were all well fledged and 

 most of them able to fly. The villagers informed me that the old 

 birds move off to the river in the very early dawn, and having 

 caught a sufficient supply for their young return about 8 or 9 

 o'clock ; a second expedition is made during the afternoon. Some 

 idea of the quantity of fish caught by these birds may be gathered 

 from what the people told me, that quantities of fine fish were 

 dropped by the old birds when feeding their young and were eaten 

 by them. A young bird of this species, which I shot in Sind, 



