THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 40& 



tiacl hardly begun before it was noticed by one of my Postal 

 runners, and it then attempted to fly away ; its feet had, however, 

 somehow caught in the stomach feathers of the babbler, and it could 

 >only flutter along dragging its dinner along with it. The runner 

 succeeded in catching it with his puggree and brought it to me. It 

 was a fierce little bird and bit savagely at anyone who approached 

 the cage in which we placed it, flying at the bars to get at them and 

 making no attempt to get further away. Its overhanging eyebrows, 

 caused by the prominence of the frontal bones, gives these tiny Falcons 

 the look of a true eagle, heightened by its game, carriage and aspect, 

 I once found its nest, fortunately containing an egg. The parent birds 

 had appropriated a hole made by a Barbet (Cyanops asiatica) in a 

 horizontal branch of a tree. The egg, instead of being like that of a 

 hawk, was just like one of Taccocua or Cenlrococcyx in texture and in 

 shape, though longer than those of the latter genus. It measures 

 1-12"X*87". It was all white. 



Another egg brought to me by Nagas and said to be that of this bird 

 was quite different, a regular pygmy Sparrow-hawk's egg, white ground 

 with bold reddish blotches, irregularly distributed over its surface. 

 It was of a soft chalky texture outside, but I did not believe in its 

 authenticity and tried to take off the markings. I failed in this, but left 

 the inner harder shell exposed. This egg measures 1'1"X'9' ? , and 

 is also in shape more like what one would expect the hawk tribe to 

 produce. The Nagas said they took it from an abandoned Barbet's 

 hole, and it is just barely possible that these Falconets may sometimes 

 lay blotched eggs. 



