2 
stream disgorged the entire leg of acat. They breed during the months 
of February and March. In my notes taken at the time, I find the 
following :— March 7. Found to-day, on the top of rather a low pee- 
pul (species of banian tree), the nest of the Black Vulture, on which 
one of the old birds was sitting. The nest, which was very large, 
was built of small sticks; it contained one egg. On the same tree a 
pair of the Black-headed Ibis (Tantalus melanocephalus, Lath.) had 
also built their nest ; it contained four white eggs, very similar to those 
of the Pelican Ibis (7. leucocephalus).’’—‘ March 19. Shot a male 
Black Vulture sitting on one egg; the nest was about a yard in cir- 
cumference, built on the top of a thorny tree; it was composed of 
the thorny branches and other sticks below it. Among the thorny 
twigs forming the nest were two small nests, belonging to birds of 
the Passerine order, containing young.”’ In both these cases only one 
ege was found, of a pure white colour, 3,8, inches in length by 335 
inches in width. In a third also, only one egg was found. The na- 
tives say that the Black Vulture lays two eggs, containing a male and 
female bird, but these facts seem opposed to such a statement. 
Genus NrorHrRon. 
NEOPHRON PERCNOPTERUS. EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 
This is the most common and most efficient scavenger to be found 
in the cantonments of India. The last-mentioned Vulture feeds only, 
I believe, on decaying animal substances, but this bird usurps the 
place of the night-cart, removing the filth that would otherwise cause 
pestilence under a tropical sun. Any one who has been in India must 
have observed these disgusting-looking birds, from the young in its 
black to the mature in their white plumage, stalking with awkward 
gait in troops about the plains which generally surround an Indian 
military station, and no one can mistake the errand on which they 
are there. They breed during the months of February, March, and 
probably April. -I have found their nests most frequently during 
the month of March. The nest, of a large size, is composed of sticks ; 
in one case it was lined with rags and other refuse. It is generally 
built on tall trees, especially the banian. I found one on a ledge of 
rock on the side of a steep hill. The eggs are in general two in num- 
ber, varying very much in colour, from white spotted with brown tc 
a universal rust or liver-brown, darkest at the large end; 2,4, inches 
in length by 2, inches in breadth. One nest contained two eggs, one 
nearly white, the other equally brown. The young when first hatched 
are covered with a whitish-brown down, the down being whitest on 
the oldest. I give a description of a young bird brought to me on 
the 15th of April: “‘ Beak and naked skin under the chin and about 
the gape and beak, dull greenish lead-colour, that over the eyes 
and on the forehead, lead. Irides dark; a white spot of down on 
the crown of the head; feathers on the neck and upper part’ of the 
body tipped with ferruginous; back upper tail-coverts dull white, 
tipped with fawn ; tail-feathers dull whitish fawn; lesser coverts 
whitish, tipped with ferruginous brown; quills greenish-black ; legs 
