NISABTUS. 143 



several years in view, but uever couIlI get at it; it was on a steep 

 precipice and none would volunteer to assist ine. That the birds 

 bad their nest there was more than established, because during 

 other periods of the year the pair used to carry off my poultry aud 

 eat them wherever they found a place suitable, but in the breeding- 

 season they always carried their plunder to the nest. 



" One year I caught the young birds, two in number, the first 

 in July, aud the second in August. 



" i have subsequently cauglat young nestling birds at Nynee 

 Tal, along with the old ones, thus taking the whole family. This 

 was in the month of August. 



" In February last I saw a pair apparently courting, which flew 

 to aud out of a large nest placed in a tree in the forest, at a place 

 called Bunderjewrah, 8 miles east of Eamnuggur." 



The late Major Cock sent me the following account of a nest 

 of this species which he obtained near Dhurumsala (in the Hima- 

 layas) ; — "Found a nest on the 25th January, 1870; it was 

 placed in the middle of a cheel-tree {Pinus longifolia) on the place 

 where three large branches forked out. This was such an unusual 

 situation that 1 shot the old bird to be quite sure that it was 

 Eutolmaetus bonellii. The cheel-tree stood at the edge of a very 

 lofty precipice, about 40 feet from the bottom of which was a nest 

 of Gypaetus barbatus, and there were plenty of likely precipices 

 all about, so I could not understand their building in this tree. 

 The natives informed me that they had done so for years. The 

 nest was a large platform, and the eggs, t«'o in number, were laid 

 on a lining of fresh green cheel-leaves. The eggs were both 

 white, one the usual shape, the other a very long blunt oval. 

 Both eggs were quite fresh, for 1 watched the nest daily till they 

 were laid." 



Colonel E. A. Butler writes :—" Belgaum, Dec. 25, 1879. A 

 nest of Bonelli's Eagle, containing two fresh eggs. The nest was 

 built upon one of the large outer limbs of a tall tree (^Bombax 

 malabaricum), about 35 feet from the ground, and consisted of a 

 huge mass of sticks lined with the green leaves of the tree it was 

 built upon." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wendon, writing from the Deccan, re- 

 mark : — " A nest with a single young bird just hatched out, was 

 found on 10th February. The hen was shot, and within two days 

 the male appeared with another female and the young one dis- 

 appeared. The pair went to another old nest of enormous size on 

 an adjacent tree. Although several people were sent to the 

 village officials with instructions to have the eggs taken, nothing 

 was sent to us but i\\ o eggs of N. perenopterus, which had, of 

 course, been taken from some other nest. Eggs were taken at 

 Kassigaum on 18th January, 1876, slightly set. Other eyries 

 with young birds were seen at Dhotri and Subjar." 



Writing from Kotaghery in the Nilghiris, Miss Cockburn says : — 

 " I have been successful in obtaining the eggs of this fine bird, 

 and was present when they were taken. The nest, placed on a 



