NJSAETUS FASCIATUS. 177 



the birds were sitting on the 20th of February ; only one was 

 hatched. 



In 1871 the nest of 1869 was repaired, the birds beginning to 

 renew it about Christmas 1870 ; two eggs were laid by the 6th 

 of February, both of which proved fertile. 



In 1872 the upper nest, that of 1870, was the favoured one : 

 the repairs began on the 20th of December, 1871 ; the first of the 

 two eggs laid w r as deposited on the 5th of February. On the 

 16th of March both were hatched, making forty days occupied 

 in incubation. Both birds sometimes sat at the same time ; but 

 usually they relieved one another. They continually turned the 

 eggs over with their bills ; and sometimes, when taken, the eggs 

 bear marks of this in the shape of scratches. The upper part of 

 these nests was always entirely rebuilt with fresh green olive- 

 boughs, lined with smaller twigs of the same. Some of the 

 boughs accidentally dropped were afterwards picked up at the 

 foot of the Rock, gnawed through as if by rats. It must have 

 cost the Eagles some time and trouble to procure them, as olive 

 is very hard and tough. 



In 1873 I was not at Gibraltar ; but on my return in 1874, on 

 the 24th of February, it appeared that they had built in a fresh 

 situation near the other sites, and that two unspotted bluish- 

 white eggs, rather smaller than the usual type, had been taken 

 the day previously by the aid of the same men whom I had 

 employed in 1870. This nest was hid from view of the signal- 

 station by a projection of the rock, and was easily obtained, the 

 cliff there being less than half the height of that where the nest 

 of 1870 is placed. In company with the officers who obtained 

 these eggs, we took another nest of Bonelli's Eagle at some 

 distance from Gibraltar. It was on some rocks where the 

 previous spring they had had the good fortune to take two eggs. 

 We found the nest built in a different situation, easily obtained 

 by the aid of a rope, and very neatly built and lined with twigs 

 and leaves of the cork-tree ; it contained two splendid eggs, 



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