404 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIBTORY SOCIETY, n92. 



filled the cartrirlge case up to the brim with No. 5, altogether about 2 oz., 

 of shot. At this shot the bird that had disappeared into the leafy tree came 

 into view and safe on a branch close to where I concluded the nesfc must be. 

 I then fired at this bird with my usual luck, and both birds, after flying round for 

 a short time, returned, and sat side by side on the very top of the dry tree, erecting 

 their crests and looking for all the world like a pair of l)lack and white cockatoos. 

 I watched them for some time, and made absolutely certain that they were crested 

 Black Kites. The sight being too tempting, I ventured again to fire, and I need 

 not say missed, the birds flying clear away, one, I am sorry to say, apparently 

 wounded. I sat there for some time, but as they did not return I strolled back to 

 camp, for I could not climb the tree myself, as its stem was about 8 feet in circum- 

 ference at the base, and devoid of branches for about 10 feet. Next morning I 

 returned with a Karen who could climb. His proceeding was peculiar : — Cutting 

 a notch on the left hand side at about his own height, he struggled up and got 

 the big toe of his left foot into this standing, and clinging there he cut another 

 notch on the right side about waist high, and there placed his right foot, and thus 

 worked his way gradually up, cutting notches alternately right and left and 

 cHn^ing tooth and nail. It took him a good half hour to reach the branches, 

 where he sat himself down and panted freely. In a few minutes he was able to 

 make his way to the leafy spot where I had seen the Kite disappear the day 

 before, and to my delight reported that there was a nest containing 3 eggs, which 

 he suggested bringing down in his head-cloth, whereupon I threatened to shoot 

 him unless he came down and went up again with an egg box. This he was 

 finally persuaded to do, and after carefully packing the eggs he took the nest, 

 which he brought down complete. This latter was a regular hawk's nest, about 

 one foot in diameter, formed of twigs and small sticks with a very slight depression 

 in the centre, lined with a few fresh Padouk leaves; it was placed on the horizontal 

 fork of a branch some 6 inches in diameter. 



The ega;s, which were very hard set, w^ere of a chalky white colour, one rather 

 stained with the yellow droppings of the birds. They are broad ovals in shape, 

 and measured 1-55 X 1-25, 1 •5x1-22, and 1-4 x 1-3, respectively. 



The nest and eggs are now in the possession of Major C T. Bingham at 

 Moulmein. While the above-mentioned nest was being taken, from a Padouk 

 tree, some 50 yards away, a female Humis Goshawk Astur poliopsis flew off 

 which I shot, and seeing the nest I sent my Karen climber hp, when in the 

 fork formed by a branch striking out from the trunk about 50 feet from the ground 

 he found a nest containing two young birds and an addled egg, which he brought 

 down; the egg, which is not unlike the egg of the above mentioned Kite in colour, 

 but is more pointed at the small end and dreadfully dirtied by the droppings of 

 the birds, measured Tox]-!. 



T. A. HANXWELL, 

 Deputy Conservator of Forests. 

 Moulmein, Wth May 1892. 



