} 
NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. NA 
17.—THE KESTREL, 
Cerchneis tinnunculus, Lin. 
Most of the Kestrels found in Western India are cold weather 
visitants only, retiring to the mountain ranges to breed, many of 
them leaving the country altogether for this purpose. They are 
known to breed on the Nilgiris, and Mr. Davidson, C.S., found nests 
containing young in May on the Ghats in the Nassick district. Iam 
indebted to him for the following interesting note:-—“ This is, as a 
“rule, a migrant, but a fair number breed all along the ghats in the 
“Nassick district. I have never taken the eggs, but I have shot the 
“‘young on the sides of the cliffs while unable to fly. They breed in 
“holes in the cliffs, and as there are a great many holes equally 
“suitable, the nests are hard to find. To get at them one party has 
“to stay below the cliffs, probably 200 feet from the top, and 
“another with a rope ladder above. As the holes in which the bird 
“nests are very deep and often 100 feet from the top, it is simply 
“luck to find the right one, and one in a position that the man let 
“* down the cliff can reach.” 
They breed very commonly in the Bolan Pass and on the Khoja 
Amran Mountains in Southern Afghanistan. 
At this latter place I found many nests. The nest is generally 
on a ledge or ina hole in the face of a cliff, but I once took four 
eggs from a nest that originally belonged to a common magpie. 
The nest is of no particular shape, often taking the form of 
the place m which it is built ; it is composed of small twigs, and all 
those that I have seen have been unlined. The eggs, four in 
number, rarely five, are broad ovals in shape, somewhat compressed 
at one end. ‘The colour varies from light to dark brick or blood- 
red, mottled, blotched, and freckled with darker shades of the same 
colour, but yellowish-brown varieties also occur. They measure 
1°58 inches in length by about 1:2 in kreadth. 
Chaman. H. EH. Barnes. 
Nassick, May. Nestlings. J. Davidson, 0.8. 
23.—THE SHIKRA. 
Astur badius, Gm. 
Of the many hawks that occur in India, the Shikra is perhaps 
the commonest, and is the only one that is known to breed in our 
