PSEUDOGYPS. 207 



loud and prolonged hoarse roar. On going on a little further the 

 sound was found to proceed from a pair of P. bengalensis in copula 

 on a large horizontal branch of a tree, some thirty feet above the 

 ground. The cry was very remarkable, and more like what some 

 large carnivorous mammal might be expected to utter than any 

 bird." 



Mr. Scrope Doig sends me the following note from the Eastern 



Narra in Sind : — "I found a colony of these birds breeding in the 



middle of a large swamp on an island on which there were a lot of 



large babool-trees ; there were about forty pairs of birds, in many 



instances two and three nests were on the same tree. The date was 



the 20th November, arvi the eggs were all more or less incubated." 



Major Bingham remarks ; — " The White-backed Vulture breeds 



at Allahabad across the Ganges, opposite Mhow Serai near the 



village of Chupree, and more abundantly a little further on. Near 



Chupree I found on the 8th November two nests, large platforms 



of sticks and twigs placed high up in trees. Although the eggs 



were quite fresh, it was very difficult to get the old hen on one 



nest to move, no amount of blank firing at her under the nest 



had the slightest effect, and the native whom I had sent up 



seemed afraid to venture near; at length, however, he managed to 



hustle her off, when she sat on a neighbouring branch hissing like 



a whole colony of geese. At Delhi these Vultures have several 



breeding-places on both the Eastern and Western Jumna Canals.'' 



Mr. Gr. Eeid informs us that this Vulture breeds at Lucknow 



from November to the end of March. 



Colonel E. A. Butler tells us that " the White-backed Vulture 

 begins to lay in the middle of October, but the nests are often 

 completed as early as the beginning of September, from which 

 time until the egg is laid the hen bird is constantly on the nest, 

 whilst the cock bird either sits on the edge of the nest or on a 

 bough close by. I found three nests, apparently finished, in the 

 early part of September this year (1876), and although the hen 

 birds were sitting upon each occasion that I visited the nests, 

 allow'ing the man who ascended the tree to approach within a 

 few yards before flying off, when I left the district to return to 

 Deesa (18 miles) on the 30th of the month, not one of them con- 

 tained an egg. The nests in most instances are huge stick struc- 

 tures, sometimes vi'ell padded inside with peepul or banian leaves, 

 sometimes without any lining. One or two nests seemed to be 

 built almost entirely of huge leaves, teak, banian, &c. ; but in 

 most instances the formation and body of the nests were composed 

 of dead sticks. 1 only found one egg in each nest. I took eggs 

 this year (1876) on the 13th, 14th, and 15th October. All these 

 nests were taken on the road between Deesa and Ahmedabad. 

 Some on tamarind-trees, two or three nest on one tree, others 

 single nests on banian and other tall trees. On the 20th October 

 1 found six more nests, four of which contained a single fresh egg 

 each, and the other two each contained a single egg ready to hatch 

 (chipped). On revisiting these last six nests on the 8th November, 



