84 MILVUS GOVINDA. 



were taking in the air, with apparently but little exertion, by seizing them in their talons ! The note of this 

 Kite is a tremulous squeal, uttered much when on the wing, or when congregated to feed on any newly-found 

 garbage, when they become very noisy, as observed by Jerdon in the above paragraph. 



Nidification. — The Pariah Kite breeds, as I am informed, in the north of Ceylon about May, retiring into 

 the jungle for the purpose, and often building on trees near village tanks or in the vicinity of villages. I have 

 not myself seen their nests ; nor have I any description of them as built in Ceylon ; I therefore subjoin the 

 following account from Mr. Hume's voluminous notes in his ' Nests and Pjggs of Indian Birds : ' — " They build , 

 almost without exception, on trees ; but I have found two nests (out of many hundreds that 1 have examined) 

 placed, Neophron-like, on the cornices of ruins. The nest, mostly placed in a fork, but not uncommonly laid 

 on a Hat bough, is a large clumsy mass of sticks and twigs, the various thorny acacias appearing to be the 

 favourite material, lined or intermingled with rags, leaves, tow, &c. The birds are perfectly fearless, breeding 

 as freely on stunted trees situated in the densest-populated bazaars or most crowded grain-markets as on the 

 noblest trees in the open fields. Two appears to be the normal number of eggs ; but they often lay three." 

 The same author remarks that the variety of types of coloration is countless, and that " the ground-colour is 

 almost invariably a pale greenish or greyish white, more or less blotched, clouded, mottled, streaked, penlined, 

 spotted, or speckled with various shades of brown and red, from a pale buffy brown to purple, and from blood- 

 red to earth-brown. Many of the eggs are excessively handsome, having the boldest hieroglyphics blotched 

 in blood-red on a clear white or pale-green ground. Others, again, are covered with delicate markings, as if 

 etched on them with a crow-quill." The average size of 273 eggs, measured by Mr. Hume, was 2 - 19 by 

 1-77 inch. 



