XEOPHBON. 213 



one from which I toolc an egg of Haliaelus leueogaster some years 

 ago. The Vulture's egg was quite fresh." 



'J'he eggs, when first laid, are usually a nearly unsullied, pale, 

 greenish white ; but as incubation proceeds they become greatly 

 stained and discoloured by the droppings of the parent bird. I have 

 taken only one egg at all marked, and this showed numerous very 

 faint diugy purplish streaks and spots, but possibly higher-coloured 

 examples may occur. 



In shape, the eggs vary from rather long ovals to nearly spheres ; 

 but the normal type I consider to be a round oval. 



The texture is moderately tine ; the shell very strong, and, as a 

 rule, glossless ; but I have found eggs with a faint gloss. 



The egg-lining is green. 



The eggs vary in size from 3-2 to 3-5 inches in length, and from 

 2-45 to 2-8 inches in breadth. Of twenty-four eggs measured, the 

 average dimensions were 3-34 by 2-6 inches. 



Neophron ginginiaims (Lath.). The White Scavenger-Vulture. 



Neophron percnopterua (Linn), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 12. 



Neophron ginginianus (Baud.), Hume, Hough Draft N. ^ E, no. 6. 



The White Scavenger- Vulture breeds from the latter end of 

 February to the end of April ; but the majority, I think, lay 

 towards the end of March. They nest indifferently, it appears to 

 me, on rocky precipices, earthen cliffs, parapets or cornices of 

 buildings, and large trees. I hax'e often found the nests on ledges 

 of the clay cliffs of the Jumna, close to nests containing the young 

 of Bonelli's Eagle or the Jugger Falcon. At Etawah, a pair yearly 

 build on the church-tower, at the base of the steeple. One pair 

 always breed on the portico of the Metcalfe Hall at Agra. On 

 the rocky headland, known as the MataPahar, which juts out from 

 the southern shore of the Sambhur Lake, whose blue waters it 

 overlooks, I found a nest in a cleft of the rock, from which I was 

 able to take the eggs without leaving the pathway ; and within 2 

 feet of the head of the sitting bird was a nest containing three eggs 

 of Ptyonoprogne concolor. They are far from seeking retirement. 

 They build commonly in trees in the suburbs of towns — neem, 

 tamarind, peepul, and burgot alike furnishing them with home- 

 steads ; and for several years I noticed a pair building on a 

 comparatively small tree, in the centre of the busy grain-market 

 at Etawah. 



The nests areclumsy, ragged, stick structures ; platforms slightly 

 depressed towards the centre, loosely put together and lined with 

 any soft substance they can most readily meet with. Old rags are 

 a great stand-by. In many parts of the country, wayfarers, as 

 they pass particular trees, have a semi-religious custom of tearing 

 a strip off their clothes to hang thereon. Who puts the first strip, 

 and why they do it, I have never clearly been able to ascertain ; 

 but once a beginning is made, " one fool makes many," and the tree 



