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Show 1871.] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 681 The Jugger breeds in high trees, in the absence of cliffs, during January and February, laying usually four eggs. In size they are intermediate between those of F. peregrinus and F. islandicus, and not unlike Hewitson's plate of that bird's egg. I have never seen this Falcon build its own nest on trees, but have invariably found it take possession of the old nests of Gyps bengalensis or of Milvus govinda. Generally speaking, it is not even relined ; but it is worth mentioning that one nest examined in m y presence, in which the eggs were tolerably well incubated, was comfortably and warmly lined with several handfuls of small feathers. Did the birds instinctively make their habitation comfortable for the reception of their expected progeny, or were the feathers collected accidentally ! I am inclined to think the latter was the case, as in all the nests examined by me this season the female bird has betrayed her whereabouts by making a plaintive cry, as Falcons do when hungry, and I am under the impression that the male caters for her during the season of incubation, and hence this accumulation of feathers in the nest. I shot a pair off the nest, the female of wdiich was in the brown or juvenile plumage, probably a second year's bird, while the male was an old one. The Jugger is indeed a dirty bird, and swarms with huge disgusting parasites nearly half an inch long, which I have never noticed on any other Falcon. 16. LITHOFALCO CHIQUERA, Daud. (The Toorumtee or Redheaded Merlin.) Is universally distributed. Breeds generally in February and March. The few nests discovered by m e I attribute solely to the fuss made by these little Falcons, as they are most pugnacious and noisy during the breeding-season, actually attacking Kites and Crows at a considerable distance from the tree they have monopolized. On two occasions my tent happened to be pitched in a mango-tope where a pair of Toorumtees were busy building; and I found them a perfect nuisance, as they were incessantly darting out and driving away all manner of imaginable enemies. The nest is generally placed in a leafy clump, near the top of a tree (by preference the mango), and it is by no means easy of detection. Four is the usual complement of eggs they lay ; and in size and appearance some in my collection would easily do duty for those of Falco subbuteo as figured by Hewitson. On the whole there appears to be the same relation between the eggs of this bird and of the Jugger Falcon as there is between those of the Peregrine and the Kestrel. Mr. H u m e states that he has " as yet obtained no egg earlier than the 15th of February"*. It is, indeed, strange that the only three nests taken by me were all before that date-one of them actually as early as the 9th of January last. One of these three deserves special notice. I was returning home late on the evening of the 4th of February last, when m y attention was attracted by the familiar cry of one of these birds, which I found was attacking a common Kite in the most furious manner, at a considerable height in the air. * Rough Notes, part i. p. 91. |