84 
MILVUS GOVINDA. 
were taking in the air, with apparently but little exertion, by seizing them in their talons ! The note of this 
Kite is a tremulous squeal, uttered much when on the wing, or when congregated to feed on any newly-found 
garbage, when they become very noisy, as observed by Jerdon in the above paragraph. 
Nidification . — The Pariah Kite breeds, as I am informed, in the north of Ceylon about May, retiring into 
the jungle for the purpose, and often building on trees near village tanks or in the vicinity of villages. I have 
not myself seen their nests ; nor have I any description of them as built in Ceylon ; I therefore subjoin the 
following account from Mr. Hume’s voluminous notes in his c Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds — “ They build, 
almost without exception, on trees ; but I have found two nests (out of many hundreds that I have examined) 
placed, Neophron-Y\ke, on the cornices of ruins. The nest, mostly placed in a fork, hut not uncommonly laid 
on a flat bough, is a large clumsy mass of sticks and twigs, the various thorny acacias appearing to he the 
favourite material, lined or intermingled with rags, leaves, tow, &c. lhe birds are perfectly fearless, bleeding 
as freely on stunted trees situated in the densest-populated bazaars or most crowded grain-markets as on the 
noblest trees in the open fields. Two appears to be the normal number of eggs; but they often lay three.” 
The same author remarks that the variety of types of coloration is countless, and that “ the ground-colour is 
almost invariably a pale greenish or greyish white, more or less blotched, clouded, mottled, streaked, penlined, 
spotted, or speckled with various shades of brown and red, from a pale buffy brown to purple, and from blood- 
red to earth-brown. Many of the eggs are excessively handsome, having the boldest hieroglyphics blotched 
in blood-red on a clear white or pale-green ground. Others, again, are covered with delicate markings, as if 
etched on them with a crow-quill.” The average size of 273 eggs, measured by Mr. Hume, was 2‘19 by 
1-77 inch. 
