SS EL ANUS OEKULEUS. 



kept a young bird, which he took from a nest at Nuwara Elliya, for some time. It partook greedily of meat ; 

 and I noticed that it perched with the outer toe reversed. The iris of this bird took two months to change 

 from dark brown to light hazel. 



Nidification. — This species breeds from December until March, and, I have reason to believe, resorts in con- 

 siderable numbers to the hills during its nesting-season. I have known it to build both near and in Nuwara 

 Elliya, in Deltota, and in Kadugunawa, in which latter place I took its nest myself in December 1876. This 

 nest was built in a moderately tall, umbrageous tree, in an exposed situation on one of the patnas of the 

 Kirimattie estate, and within a few hundred yards of the bungalow. It was placed among the topmost leafy 

 branches, supported by a fork so slender that the small boy I sent up had great difficulty in reaching it. It was 

 a very openly constructed fabric, about the size of a common Indian Crow's nest, made of small sticks laid over 

 one another so far apart that daylight could be seen anywhere through it except just in the centre. The interior 

 was flat, and formed of small twigs, on which lay the two eggs. One of these was almost a perfect, and the 

 other a broadish oval, of a dull white ground-colour, in one stippled all over with reddish-brown dots and 

 encircled just beyond the centre with a ring or zone of the same, in the other blotched openly throughout with 

 smeary markings of brownish red, confluent round the smaller end, and mingled in other parts with lighter 

 patches of reddish brown. They measured respectively T51 and 1*61 inch in leugth by T23 and T17 inch 

 in breadth. The female bird was frightened from the nest by our approach, and flew off with the male, not 

 returning until after we had left with the eggs, and then only to fly heavily round the tree, and make off 

 again to a neighbouring wood. 



The nest from which Mr. Murray procured his young bird was situated in the compound of the Agent's 

 house at Nuwara Elliya, and built in the top of an Australian lightwood [Acacia melanoxylon) . It con- 

 tained two young. Conflicting descriptions have been given of the eggs of this Kite by various natu- 

 ralists ; and a resume of the information possessed concerning its nidification up to date will be found in ' Stray 

 Eeathers,' 1873, as above quoted. So many nests have, however, now been taken and thoroughly identified 

 that the eggs have been satisfactorily proved not to vary more than those of other Hawks. Messrs. Blewitt 

 and Adam in India, and likewise Captain Shelley in Egypt, found the number to vary from three to four; 

 and most of the eggs found by these gentlemen seem to have been more heavily and darkly blotched than mine. 

 Erorn Mr. Adam's account, quoted by Mr. Hume in ' Nests and Eggs,' it appears that the nest is built in 

 less than a week, which is a short time for a hawk to construct its nest in. After writing of the discovery of 

 a nest near the Sambhur Lake in July 1872, he says : — " On the 7th of August I sent a man to see if the nest 

 contained eggs ; but he found that it had been abandoned and a new nest commenced in one of a group of six 

 Lasora trees (Cord/a myxa), which stood near to the Khajur tree. He also informed me he had seen the birds 

 together. I inspected the nest on the 10th of August, and found one of the birds sitting on it. The nest was 

 so loosely constructed that with my binocular I could see that it contained no eggs. I again inspected the 

 nest on the 14th August, and found that it contained two eggs. One of the birds sat close on the nest, and 

 could not be frightened off by a man beating on the trunk of the tree with a stick; and this same bird made a 

 swoop at my servant as he was climbing the tree. The nest was situated on the very top of the Lasora tree, 

 and was from 25 to 30 feet from the ground. In shape it was circular ; and, with the exception of two or three 

 pieces of Sarpat grass (Saccharum sard), there was no attempt at lining. It was about 10 inches in diameter; 

 and the egg-cavity had a depression of about 2 inches." Of the eggs he writes, they " are without gloss ; both 

 have a light creamy-white ground, of which, however, little is shown. One had the broad end all blotched over 

 with confluent patches of deep rusty red, while the smaller had numerous spots of a much lighter brownish- 

 red." Captain-Shelley, who found these nests at different times in Egypt containing each four eggs, says 

 that in that country the nest is carefully constructed of sticks and reeds, and is smoothly lined with dry leaves 

 of the su<jar-cane. 



