MILTTJS. 



173 



" I noticed a pair breeding near Kaukarit on the Houndraw 

 riA'er, but the nest, when examined on the 4th April, was still 

 unfinished." 



The eggs vary in shape of course, but typically are very perfect, 

 moderately broad, ovals, only slightly compressed towards one end ; 

 as a rule, they are smaller, and, as far as my experience goes, far 

 less richly coloured than those of M. govinda. The ground-colour 

 is greyish white, sometimes unspotted, but dingy, sometimes 

 feebly speckled and spotted, at times, towards one eud only, with 

 pale dingy brown, and sometimes scantily blotched and spotted 

 with reddish brown. In size the eggs vary from 1 -85 to 2-2 

 inches in length, and from 1*5 to 1'79 inch in breadth; but 

 the average of eighteen eggs measured was 2-02 by 1'65 inch. 



Milvus govinda, Sykes. The Larger House-Kite. 



Milvus govinda, Syhes, Jerd. B. Ind, i, p. ] 04 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. Sf E. no. 56. 



The House-Kite lays at very different seasons in different localities. 

 In the plains of Upper India and the Punjab the great majority 

 lay in February, a few only breeding in the previous and suc- 

 ceeding months. Lower down country, they are, I believe, earlier, 

 and I myself have taken eggs as early as Christmas Day. In the 

 districts bordering on the bases of the Himalayas, March is the 

 more general time ; while in the Himalayas, where our bird is 

 common up to a height of 6000 or 7000 feet, they mostly lay in 

 April and May. Everywhere stragglers breed earlier and later, by 

 nearly six weeks, than the great body of the birds do ; so that, even 

 in the neighbourhood of Agra, we have eggs recorded as early as the 

 29th December and as late as the 13th April. In Bareilly, I took 

 a nest of fresh eggs on the 9th May, and at Simla fouud three 

 much incubated ones as late as the first week in June. They build 

 almost without exception on trees ; but I have found two nests 

 (out of many hundreds that I have examined) placed, Neophron- 

 like, on the cornices of ruins. 



The nest, mostly placed in a fork, but not uncommonly laid on 

 a flat bough, is a large clumsy mass of sticks and twigs, the various 

 thorny acacias appearing to be the favourite material, lined or 

 intermingled with rags, leaves, tow, &c. The birds are perfectly 

 fearless, breeding as freely on single stunted trees, situated in the 

 densest populated bazaars, or most crowded grain-markets, as on the 

 noblest tree in the open fields. The great majority breed in the 

 suburbs of the tovms and villages, the offal of which supplies their 

 daily food ; but single nests may be found far away from human 

 habitations in almost virgin jungle. 



Two appears to be the normal number of eggs, but they often 

 lay three. Twice I have obtained four, and on several occasions 

 I have met with a single hard-set egg, or young one, in a nest. 



When robbed of their eggs, the old birds, as a rule, mope about 

 the place without laying more eggs, or attempting to build a fresh 



