liieut. Burgess on the Habits of Indian Birds. ^77 



body tipped with ferruginous ; back upper tail-coverts dull white, 

 tipped with fawn ; tail-feathers dull whitish fawn ; lesser coverts 

 whitish, tip]:)ed with ferruginous brown ; quills greenish-black ; legs 

 and feet dull lead-colour ; middle toe verj' long." In notes taken at 

 the time, I find an entry that I saw an Egyptian Vulture on her nest 

 as late as the 4th of May. 



Family Falconid.e. 



Subfamily Aquilin.e. 



Genus Aquila. 



The eggs of the Eagle forwarded with these notes are those, I be- 

 lieve, of Aquila fusca, Gray (identical 1 imagine with Aquila ncevia, 

 Gould), because that bird is by far the most common of the family 

 in that part of Western India situated above the Ghauts. In the 

 hilly portions of the country this bird may be seen perched on some 

 elevated point of rock, sitting motionless, basking in the rays of the 

 early sun ; in the plains a solitary tree is almost sure to have one of 

 them on its topmost branch. After the sun has been up some two 

 or three hours, it commences its search for food, consisting chiefly, I 

 believe, of hares. A INIharatta of high family, who had a very con- 

 siderable knowledge of the habits of the birds of the country, told me 

 that when an eagle discovers a hare in her form, which is generally 

 in the grass at the foot of a bush, she will strike the bush with her 

 wings to drive her \-ictim out, before striking at it. That a large 

 portion of this eagle's food consists of hares, I can attest, having 

 found their skulls and bones in a nest. The nest, of a large size and 

 composed of sticks, is built on tall trees ; it contains two eggs, 2-jL. 

 inches in length and 2— inches in breadth, of a white ground, 

 sprinkled over with reddish spots. They commence breeding as 

 early as the latter end of November, and their eggs may be found up 

 to the beginning of April. 



Subfamily Cymiisdin.^. 

 Genus Elan us. 



Elanus melanopterus. 



I was never able to procure the nest and eggs of this handsome 

 little Kite, but A. F. Davidson, Esq., of the Revenue Surrey, a great 

 sportsman and accurate observer of birds, told me that he obtained 

 a young bird of this species and two eggs. The eggs were of a pure 

 white colour, and about as large as the egg of the Indian Blue Pigeon. 

 They were laid during the month of December. The stomach of one 

 of these birds contained a rat. 



From the colour of the eggs, and the manner in which the radia- 

 ting hairs between the eye and beak meet over the ridge of the beak, 

 it has struck me that this bird approaches nearer to the family of the 

 Harriers than that of the Kites. Dr. Jerdon, in his notes, also says 

 that " it frequents long grass and grain fields, over which it may be 

 seen to hover like the Kestril." 



