OTOGYPg. 



211 



tain that these Vultures had really, as the nest seemed to indicate 

 and the villagers declared, bred in this same nest during many 

 successive seasons. 



They lay a single egg. I have heard it asserted that they some- 

 times lay two, and this is quite possible ; but of the numbers of 

 nests that I have personally examined, I never found one that 

 contained more than a single egg or a single youug one ; and, in 

 Upper India, 1 feel sure that one is the normal number. 



Long ago, the late Mr. A. Anderson wrote in the P. Z. S. : — 

 " The Black or Turkey Vulture is by no means an abundant species. 

 It is a permanent resident, breeding on high trees, by preference 

 on the peepul {Fieus religiosa), a,nd laying a single white egg, which, 

 as far as my experience goes, is invariably unspotted. Mr. Hume 

 states that he ' rather suspects that these birds pair in the air' 

 . (' Rough Notes,' pt. i, p. 10). Sach may be the case ; but a pair 

 of these Vultures in the cold season of 1867 built their nest on 

 the very top of a gigantic tamarind-tree, opposite my house at 

 Fyzabad, and I witnessed them ' in copula ' in their nest at day- 

 break every morning. 



" In allusion to my having found ffi/ps beiigalensis nesting on 

 palm-trees, I have now to mention that on the 28th January la^t 

 (1875), I saw a pair of King- Vultures building on a solitary tar- 

 tree {Borassus Jlabelliformis). One bird invariably remained in the 

 nest, sorting the materials as they were brought by its mate." 



He subsequently sent me the following note : — " As the first 

 edition of ' Nests and Eggs ' does not contain any information 

 relative to this species breeding in the Himalayas, it may be as well 

 to mention that on the 13th May last I found a pair building in 

 Kumaon at an elevation of some 5000 feet, on the march between 

 Takula and Bagesur. Although the country round about contained 

 numerous eligible sites for a nest in a rocky situation, these Vultures 

 seemed to prefer a tree on the hill-side. The birds were still 

 carrying sticks, so I did not think it necessary to examine the nest." 

 Major Bingham remarks : — " I have found this Vulture breeding 

 both at Allahabad and at Delhi. At Allahabad I took three nests. 

 The first 'at Eeya, some 10 miles from Allahabad, on the 24th 

 October. The nest was a mighty structure of branches and twigs 

 and lined with a little straw. The egg it contained is pure white, 

 densely speckled with rusty at the large end. The second and third 

 nests were similar, but the eggs they contained were pure white, a 

 little stained by the feet of the birds. One nest I found at Delhi on 

 the 28th February was placed on an exceedingly tall, slender, and, til 

 near the top, branchless neem-tree. This was of the usual form, 

 a solid structure of sticks, but had a deep hollow and the egg was 

 almost buried in dry peepul-leaves." 



Mr. J. Davidson writes from Gotekindee, in the Satara District : — 

 " I was informed yesterday of a Vulture's nest a few miles from 

 here, so rode there this morning. The nest was placed on a low 

 prickly bush, about three feet from the ground. The bush was 

 growing on the side of a steep hill, the slope being at an angle of 



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