76 MR. A. ANDERSON ON THE [Jail. 16, 



to nidificate by preference on ledges of cliffs and old ruins. Doubt- 

 less it is a rock-building species ; but it is one of those Raptores that 

 adapts itself to circumstances, by building on trees near places that 

 abound with its most natural food. I have no doubt that, in the 

 absence of the above sites, they build commonly throughout the 

 country I have alluded to, perhaps exclusively, on huge-limbed peepul 

 and burgot trees. 



I was particularly unfortunate with regard to the eggs of this 

 Eagle, as the country was new to me, and I was just a little too late. 

 The only eyry that rewarded my exertions (4th March) was placed 

 on just such a tree as I have described, and contained a pair of 

 " squabs " about a week old, for all the world like pure white powder- 

 puffs. Even at that early age, there was no mistaking the charac- 

 teristic legs and claws of young A. bonellii. I was very much struck 

 by the affection shown by the female bird for her offspring ; for she 

 flew in and out of the tree even after I had twice wounded her, before 

 I was aware that her nest was there. None of my men could climb 

 the tree, owing to the enormous girth of the trunk ; nor was any 

 nest visible from below, as the foliage was dense, and the lower 

 branches were covered with a thorny creeper. With the help of an 

 extemporized ladder, ropes, &c, I managed to reach to where the 

 trunk bifurcated into two huge boughs, and from there saw the 

 position and shape of the eyry, which was placed on a horizontal 

 bough at no great distance from the ground ; but it was completely 

 hid from view. 



My next acquaintance with young A. bonellii ( 1 7th March) took 

 place under circumstances worth recording ; for it is something quite 

 new in the history of this Eagle for it to usurp the nest of another 

 bird. The one in question belonged to Haliaetus leucoryphus ; and 

 as it was tenanted, I had the curiosity to have it examined. Before 

 my climber had ascended a few feet, out flew an old Bonelli's Eagle, 

 leaving a fine fat young one, the only inmate of the nest. It suc- 

 cumbed at last to a surfeit of Crows and Doves, the only food my 

 Shikaree would give it, as he maintained that was the most strength- 

 ening flesh for all Hawks. 



It has been suggested to me that the nest above alluded to was 

 built by the parent birds ; but I am as positive as it is possible for 

 one to be in such matters that it was an old one belonging to H. 

 leucoryphus, whose young, even supposing the nest to have been 

 occupied that year, must have flown a mouth or two earlier. There 

 is no mistaking the bowl-shaped nest of this Sea- Eagle ; and I am 

 most familiar with it. In its position, shape, size, and architecture 

 it differed most materially from that built by Bonelli's Eagle, which 

 I had seen only a short time before, and was exactly similar to the 

 scores of nests belonging to the other species which I have examined 

 from time to time. Besides, this nest was placed on the very top 

 of a leafless peepul, in a most public part of the canal-banks, which 

 was a regular thoroughfare. No Bonelli's Eagle would have built 

 in such a situation. 



I have not seen this specie* in company with other Eagles. It is 



