124 PALCOIflD^. 



witHn a circle of about 80 miles round Simla ; but it is not a 

 purely local race, as I have seen a typical specimen in Mr. Man- 

 delli's collection in Darjeeling. 



The Dove- Hawk is distinguished from the European A. nisus 

 by its somewhat larger size (the males especially being noticeably 

 larger than those of A. nisus), longer wings, and conspicuously 

 more powerful tarsi, toes, and claws, and specially by the extremely 

 black tint of the head and nape, which extends more or less on to 

 the back. 



The first eggs that I obtained of this species were taken out of 

 a nest near Kotegurh, on the 28th of April, by Captain Blair. The 

 nest was a very shght one of sticks, placed on a ledge of a iigh 

 cliS. It contained t«o eggs very similar to, but perhaps a trifle 

 larger and more elongated than, those of the common Sparrow- 

 Hawk {A. nisus) generally are. In shape the eggs were somewhat 

 elongated, nearly perfect ovals, only just perceptibly compressed to- 

 wards one end. The ground-colour is a faintly bluish white. In 

 both eggs one half of the egg is almost entirely spotless, whilst the 

 greater part of the other half of the egg is occupied by a broad, irre- 

 gular, mottled and blotched zone of a burnt sienna-brown, in spots 

 becoming almost black. In neither egg does this extend quite to the 

 end, and in one it is very much more strongly marked than in the 

 other. In both a few faint pinkish-purple clouds or spots under- 

 lie or are intermingled with the brown marking of the zone. The 

 texture of the egg is fine, but it has little or no gloss. 



On the 29th of May I obtained a second nest near the same 

 place, and very similarly situated as in the former case, only 

 securing the female. The nest contained three eggs ; one of 

 these was of much the same type as the preceding; in one the 

 primary markings were more generally distributed over the whole 

 surface, were more broken up into specks and spots, freckles, and 

 exhibited a number of large secondary pale purplish clouds. The 

 third had the whole surface thickly speckled and spotted with a 

 somewhat more reddish brown, and the whole smaller end blotched 

 and smeared almost confluently with brownish red. 



These five eggs varied in length from 1"65 to 1"75 inch, and 

 in breadth from 1'27 to I'S inch. 



Accipiter virgatus (Eeinw.). The Besra Sparrow-HawJc. 



Aceipiter virgatus (Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 52 ; Hume, Cat, 

 no. 25. 



Prom Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes : — " On the 17th of May I 

 wounded a Hawk which rose off its nest, but unfortunately it fell 

 among dense jungle and could not be found. The nest was a 

 rather large platform of sticks, about as thick as a man's finger, 

 fixed in the top of a leafy tree in a wooded valley at 2500 feet 

 elevation. Not having procured the bird, I cannot speak with 



