22 
A Nest of Pallas' F'lshhig Eagle-, 
A Nest of Pallas' Fishing Eaple. 
(Haliaetus leucoryphus). 
By Hugh Whisilkr. l-'.Z.S., ktc. 
On the morning' of uth December last 1 was on the 
march on torn' and was just a[)proaching the railway bridge 
whicli crosses the River Chenab. near Jhang (Fimjab) when the 
distant cries of a pair of Pallas' Fishing" Eagle caught my ear. 
Reining up my horse and looking in their direction, I soon 
spied a large mass in a tree some half mile away w hich appeared 
likely to be their eyrie, so I rode off to investigate, followed by 
my camel orderly. 
It did not take long to reach the tree in question, and a 
near approach showed that this was certainly the Eagles' nest, 
though at the moment no bird was in sight. For the last two 
years I had seen a pair of these fine birds about, and suspected 
that they must breed somewhere in this neighbourhood, though 
1 had not artually found the site. That the spot had been 
tenanted for some time was clear from the presence of two nests 
in different trees. The new one was a huge flat-looking but 
deep structure placed on the extreme summit of an aged but not 
very high Peepul tree: on another larger tree some hlt< en vards 
away were the ruins, yet substantial, of another nest clearly 
belonging to the same pair. These trees were growing by the 
ruins of an abandoned irrigation-well in a small straggling 
clump of palm trees; the ground was low, the river and cultiva- 
tion which at certain seasons is flooded by the rising of the river, 
now a mere sluggish trickle about a mile away. 
The Camel Sowar knew his business without orders. He 
barracked the Camel, and disencumbering hiinself of unneces- 
sary clothing started the ascent of the Peepul tree. The climb 
was no easy one from the shape of the tree and the fact that a 
portion of the climb was impeded by the head of a neighbouring 
date-palm. However, the climber worked on and was reaching 
the nest when, to my astonishment — for one way and another 
we had made a certain amount of noise, but had seen nothing of 
the birds — a Fishing Eagle rose from the nest and started to 
circle round and round w ithin easy range of us. 
