24 HAWKS, FALCONS AND EAGLES. 



of fear that it almost allowed me to pick it up. Many 

 years> ago a pair of Laggars used to have their head- 

 quarters, and perhaps their nest, at the University 

 v Tower, and I sometimes see one there still. They 

 build in January or February, on large trees, cliffs, 

 or high buildings, and lay three or four eggs so 

 thickly spotted and blotched with reddish-brown 

 that sometimes there is little of any ground colour 

 .visible. 



There is one other Falcon which must be mentioned, 

 namely, the Kestril, which is very common all over 

 India in the cold season and will be met with wherever 

 there is open, grassy ground, like the Bombay Flats. 

 It is about the size of the Sparrow Hawk and more 

 easily recognised than most hawks by its colour. 

 The back and wings are chestnut, or almost brick- 

 red, but the quills are black and the tail is gray. 

 The contrast is^ striking and unmistakable. The 

 under parts are light-buffy, spotted with brown. 

 The Kestril is also distinguished by its peculiar habit 

 of hovering in air when looking for its prey of grass- 

 hoppers, lizzards, mice and larks. The Duke of 

 Argyll has devoted three pages of " The Reign of 

 Law " to an exposition of this performance. A few 

 pairs of Kestrils seem to spend the year in India, 

 making their nests on high cliffs on the mountains, 

 but the majority of those which we see in the cold 

 season are tourists. In Barnes' book the Kestril 

 appears as Cerchneu tinnunculus, but I am glad to 

 see tha,t Mr. Blandford has restored Jerdon's name, 

 Tinnunculus alaudarius. 



To the- lay mind the word Eagle conveys the idea 

 of a .royal bird of gigantic size and noble aspect, 



