210 VtJlTUElDiE. 



Mr. "W. Blewitt tells me that, besides the nest already alluded to, 

 he found no less than seven nests of this Vulture, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hansie, between the 6th and 24th March ; each con- 

 tained a single egg. Pour of the eggs were quite fresh, two partly 

 incubated, and one ready to hatch ofi ; those taken on the 22ad 

 and 24th March being quite fresh. Two nests were not above 

 14 feet from the ground, and no nest (this is not a part of the 

 country where trees run high) was above 25 feet from the ground. 

 Two were on keekur-trees, two (the two low ones) on old heens 

 bushes {Capparis aphylla), and three on peepul, burgot, and shee- 

 shiim trees. The nests varied from. 19 to 25 inches in diameter, 

 and from 5 to 8 inches in thickness, and were all dense masses of 

 thorny twigs of the ber {Zizyphus jvjuba), khyr (Acacia catechu), 

 and keekur. They were lined, some thickly, some thinly, with 

 leaves or straw, and in one the egg was regularly bedded in leaves 

 and straw. This is not altogether in accordance with my own 

 experience ; but in this, as in other cases, Mr. Blewitt sent me all 

 the eggs and more than one of the parent birds, and there can be 

 no doubt as to the accuracy of his observations. The same gentle- 

 man took a fresh egg of this species as late as April 13th, 1868. 

 The nest was placed upon a peepul-tree, at a height of about 30 

 feet from the ground, measured about 1 6 inches in diameter by 

 6 inches in depth, and was composed of keekur-twigs, lined with 

 Hue straw and a few leaves. This was also in the Hansie district, 



1 have never found two pairs breeding near each other. The 

 tree they commonly select is one standing altogether apart, in the 

 middle of some dhak (Butea frondosa) jungle or waste place ; but 

 I have taken their eggs from trees belonging to groups situated in 

 cultivated land, and on the 1st March, 1867, I found a nest (from 

 which I shot the female and took the egg) on a peepul-tree situated 

 right in the centre of the village of Deopoora, ZiUah Mynpooree. 



The nest is a huge ilat platform, more often oval or oblong than 

 circular, chiefly composed of sticks varying from 1 inch to | inch 

 in diameter, loosely put together, but still, from their aggregate 

 weight and the manner in which they interlace, forming a very 

 solid structure. They always have a lining towards the centre, 

 often of numerous strips, from 6 to 10 inches long and from 1 to 3 

 broad, of the fan-leaves of the toddy-palm, but not uncommonly of 

 peepul, banyan, or neem leaves, or of slender twigs of these trees 

 to which the leaves are attached. 



The nest varies from 2^ to 4 feet in length and breadth, and is 

 often more than a foot in thickness. Though I have no positive 

 proof of it, native hunters assure me that, when not molested, 

 they breed year after year during long periods in the same nest ; 

 !ind the materials of one nest that I demolished weighed over 8 

 Indian maunds (over 6 cwt.), and proved to have at least three 

 distinct layers and to have been used many times. As, how- 

 e\er, 1 Inow that this bird sometimes, like Ketupa ceylonensis, 

 takes possession of old ne>ts of Haliaetus leueoryplvus, of which 

 bird there an ere several pairs in the neighbourhood, I cannot be eer- 



