806 The Zoologist— July, 1867. 



eggs were quite fresh, one of them having probably been laid the 

 previous day. Having rested myself and scribbled down the above 

 notes, I descended the tree, getting down with much greater facility 

 and speed than I ascended. Manuel had gone off; so I sat and waited 

 for him, and in the meantime noted down the colours of the cere, iris, 

 &c, of the bird itself, which I copy as follows : — Cere aud feet light 

 wax-yellow; claws black ; beak at cere light blue, darkening towards 

 the tip into a dark horn-blue colour; iris light brown. 



Having done this I sat down and watched what birds were to be 

 seen. In the distance I could hear the " hoop, hoop " of the hoopoe; 

 and a roller came and perched on a tree not far off. Before long 

 Picus minor made his appearance, and seemed not a little satisfied that 

 his home had remained undisturbed. High above me the mate of the 

 wounded eagle was circling, keeping, however, so far off that there was 

 no chance of obtaining a shot at him. After waiting a short time I 

 heard some one pushing his way through the brambles ; and soon after 

 Manuel appeared, bringing with him a nest and four eggs of Fringilla 

 carduelis which he had found. He proposed that we should skirt 

 along the river-bank, and thought that he knew of a place where we 

 might find Caprimulgus ruficollis. We were, however, not fortunate 

 enough to find any, although we searched carefully for some time. 

 At one place on the river-bank we found a colony of Merops apiasler, 

 numbering some two hundred or three hundred, preparing their nests 

 in a sandy bank, but we were too early to find any eggs. 



After walking along the river-side for nearly an hour, and finding three 

 nests of Milvus migrans and two of M. regalis, we saw, in a huge old 

 white elm tree overhanging the river, a nest which Manuel assured me 

 was that of a booted eagle, and which he thought probable might 

 contain something. We pelted the nest for some time, but no bird 

 left it ; and getting tired of pelting, I at last fired a charge of dust-shot 

 at the nest, with, however, no effect beyond that of driving out several 

 sparrows, which evidently had nests in its foundation. I therefore 

 concluded that there was no bird on the nest, and proposed that we 

 should search further; but Manuel refused, sayiug that he thought it 

 worth while to climb up to the nest, it being his turn. 



The tree was so bulky that he could not climb up the trunk; but 

 with my assistance he managed to reach the first branch, which was 

 not far from the ground. Here he was again unable to climb up the 

 trunk, and had to go to the end of a branch, and pulling down the 

 branches above dragged himself up by them. However, to cut matters 



