ASTUE. 121 



later, are all freely marked with minute specks of a reddish-brown 

 colour. I venture to say Mr. Hurae is in error in assigning only 

 three eggs to this Hawk as a general rule (see first ed. ' Nests and 

 Eggs,' pt. 1, p. 25) ; for, according to my experience, /omj- is the 

 normal number if the bird is allowed time to lay the full com- 

 plement." 



Mr. G-. Vidal says of this Hawk in the S. Konkan : — " Common 

 everywhere about villages and groves of trees. Breeds in March 

 and April." 



And Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, 

 remark : — " Common at all seasons. Nest with two fresh eggs 

 found in a mango-tree on 31st March, 1875." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken has favoured me with the following note : — 

 " Early in May 1870, at Akola (Berar), a pair of Shikras had 

 four white eggs in an old Crow's nest up a large tamarind-tree. 

 Two of the eggs were taken, and after the other two had been 

 hatched, the young birds were taken. The parent birds laid again 

 at once, and on the 9th June three hard-set eggs were taken from 

 the same nest. 



"• At the end of the same month of May, a nest with four young 

 birds was found in a mango-tope — also at Akola. 



" In June the previous year (1869) four young birds escaped from 

 a nest in a large tamarind-tree, about 200 yards from the site of 

 the first-mentioned nest. In this case the nest was placed in one 

 of the outermost branches and was only halfway up the tree." 



The eggs do not vary much in shape. They are a little shorter 

 and stouter than those of Falco ehicquera. They are oval or some- 

 what pyriform, a rather longer egg in proportion to its breadth^ 

 than one expects to find in this class of bird. They belong to the 

 Goshawk and not to the Sparrow-Hawk type. Smooth, fine, 

 glossless shells, of a pure, delicate, pale bluish white, as a rule 

 absolutely de^'oid of markings ; at most, thinly sprinliled all over 

 with very faint greyish specks and spots, thus dift'ering widely 

 from the apparently closely allied A. nisus, whose eggs are often 

 richly, and always, I believe, more or less marked. 



In size the eggs vary from 1*41 to l'(35 inch in length, and 

 from 1-12 to l-;52 in breadth ; but the average is ]-55 by 1-22. 



Astur poliopsis (Hume). Hume's Shikm. 

 Astur poliopsis, Hume ; Hmne, Cat. no. 23 bis. 



Writing from Cachar, Mr. J. Inglis remarks : — "This Hawk is 

 perhaps more generally met with than any other ; it breeds during 

 March and April." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps remarks of this Hawk in Eastern Bengal : — 

 " On the 18th April, 1878, I found a nest of one of these birds 

 which contained one very slightly-incubated egg ; it was built in a 

 fork high up near the top of a peepul-tree, and was a ragged 

 affair of twigs with an attempt at a lining of fine grass-roots, 



