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sitting on the stakes set up in shallow water by fishermen ; and he also frequently noticed it in 

 summer about the Kazeran and Dashtiarjan lakes. As he remarks that " it is recognizable by 

 the broad dark band in the middle of the white tail," the bird to which he alludes must have 

 been the present species. Dr. SevertzofF informs me that during the summer season it occurs 

 throughout Turkestan, where at times it is numerous, but it only occurs rarely in the winter 

 season. According to Dr. Jerdon (B. of India, i. p. 85), this Eagle is " found throughout the 

 north of India, most abundant in Bengal and the countries to the westward. It ascends the 

 Ganges and other large rivers to some distance, and is found in Nepal and as far north-west as 

 Cashmere, where Dr. Adams has observed it on the lakes and rivers. It is also common on the 

 Indus." Mr. A. O. Hume says that he found it very common all down the great rivers from 

 Jhelum to Sukkur, and he noticed a few between Sehwan and Hyderabad. I do not find the 

 present species mentioned by Middendorff, Radde, or Schrenck; but Mr. Taczanowski states 

 (J. f. O. 1874, p. 326) that both adult and immature examples were obtained on the Argun, and 

 that Mr. Godlewski wrote to him stating that it is common and breeds in Eastern Siberia. 

 Colonel Prjevalsky met with it in Mongolia, on the northern bend of the Hoang-ho, where it 

 was tolerably common. He also observed it in Kan-su, and during the spring and autumn he 

 found it about Koko-nor. It is a migrant, arriving in March and leaving in the late autumn ; 

 but he thinks that he saw it near Urgey in September 1873. He believes that it breeds in the 

 Hoang-ho valley. 



Respecting the habits and nidification of the present species in Europe I find no reliable 

 data beyond what little is given by Colonel Irby ; but some interesting notes respecting its 

 general habits in India have been collected and published by Mr. A. O. Hume, who writes 

 (Rough Notes, p. 242) as follows: — " I have taken the eggs of this species during the latter half 

 of November, in December, and January, and once or twice in the early part of February. The 

 greater number of these birds, however, lay in December ; and most of the nests that I have 

 examined later than the 15th of January have contained young ones. They build on large trees, 

 on the Peepul (Ficus religiosa) by preference, I think, but also on many other kinds — Sheeshum 

 (Dalbergia seesoo), Banyan (F. indicus), &c. The trees that they select are almost invariably 

 solitary ones, situated either on the bank of some river, or beside some considerable jheel. In 

 Upper India I do not know a single large jheel which retains water in it as late as February 

 where a pair of this species does not breed ; and all down the Jumna, Ganges, Chambul, and 

 Sutledge, wherever I have been, I have invariably met with at least one pair every three or four 

 miles, and in particular localities every half mile. 



" The nest is a huge platform of sticks, some of which are often as thick as a man's arm, 

 with a superstructure of thinner sticks and twigs, and with only a slight depression towards the 

 interior, which is lined with twigs and green leaves, occasionally intermingled with rushes and 

 straw. The nest is usually placed in a broad fork, near the very top of a tree, on branches that 

 seem scarcely strong enough to support the huge mass, and is sometimes occupied by the same 

 pair for many successive years. 



" I do not think that this species ever takes possession of other birds' nests. It either builds 

 a new one for itself or repairs one formerly belonging to it, even though this may in the interim 

 have been usurped by Vultur calvus or Ketupa ceylonensis, both much addicted to annexing the 



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